UP bypolls: Test for CM Yogi Adityanath magic, opposition unity

LUCKNOW: Votes will be cast in Gorakhpur and Phulpur parliamentary bypolls today. The campaigning has been rigorous and intense with both ruling party and opposition having a lot at stake as the result will build ground for the general elections next year. The poll outcome is also crucial since the result will be seen both as a mandate on state government s performance in its first year and test the efficacy of SP-BSP alliance and its prospects in 2019. In the last fortnight CM Yogi visited Gorakhpur a number of times stayed there for over seven days and addressed 21 public meetings events while a number of his ministers have been camping there. BJP intensified campaigning after BSP extended support to SP candidates and changed strategy to prevent consolidation of opposition votes. BJP had to convince people that Upendra Shukla who had once rebelled against the party was a choice of Yogi who is popularly known as Maharaj ji in Gorakhpur. BJP is also banking on RSS foot soldiers who have fanned out in the five assembly segments of Gorakhpur. On the other hand https://kkflipkart.page4.me/ SP president Akhilesh Yadav had stitched up an alliance of OBC-dominated parties including NISHAD Party Peace Party NCP RLD and also Binds and Gonds to give a fight to BJP. He deployed prominent faces like Ram Govind Chaudhary Arvind Singh Gope Uday Veer Singh Lalai Yadav and Balram Yadav to woo non-upper caste voters. BSP support has boosted SP morale as Brahmins have a considerable presence in Gorakhpur and Vinay Shankar Tewari BSP MLA from Chillupar and son of muscleman-turned-politician Hari Shankar Tiwari is campaigning for its candidate Pravin Kumar Nishad. Eastern UP has been infamous for traditional rivalry between the two dominant upper castes Brahmins and Thakurs. Congress is banking on the popularity of its candidate Dr Surheeta Kareem a well known doctor in Gorakhpur but is not very hopeful. BJP has fielded Kaushalendra Singh from Phulpur even though he is seen as an outsider having been mayor of Varanasi. Traditionally Phulpur has been a Congress bastion since it was represented by Jawahar Lal Nehru thrice. Yogi addressed meetings in Phulpur too though deputy CM Keshav Maurya who represented the constituency till he resigned has been leading the campaign. Independent candidate Atiq Yadav is however threatening to nibble into Muslim votes of SP-BSP alliance while Congress has nominated a Brahmin to eat into BJP votes. While SP and BSP are banking on caste equations BJP is relying on Modi-Yogi magic to work in its favour.
By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: March 11 2018 10:28:57 am Uttar Pradesh by-polls live updates: The polling will take place amid tight security arrangements in the two parliamentary constituencies. As soon as the polling for Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh began Sunday Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who cast his first vote for Gorakhpur seat said the BJP will win both the bypolls with a big margin. He also termed the SP-BSP alliance as opportunistic . Reacting to question on Rahul Gandhi the UP CM said that wherever the Congress president goes the grand old party is decimated. Parliamentary constituencies of Gorakhpur and Phulpur are witnessing bye-elections after Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their seats respectively on taking offices of the state government. The stage is set for a high-voltage contest between BJP Congress and BSP-supported SP. Having lost Lok Sabha and Assembly bye-elections recently in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh the bypolls for the two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh especially Gorakhpur has become a matter of prestige for the BJP. READ: Gorakhpur Phulpur bye-elections: Yogi Adityanath s charisma vs SP-BSP combine While the Mayawati-led BSP has decided to bury its 25-year-old bitter rivalry and extend support to candidates nominated by Akhilesh Yadav-led SP the Congress is going it alone in both the seats. Follow UP bypolls LIVE updates here: 10:28AM 11 Mar 18 UP BJP s youth wing members to embark on nationwide campaign on April 14 Meanwhile members of the UP BJP s youth wing will embark on a nationwide campaign on the occasion B R Ambedkar s birth anniversary on April 14 to eradicate casteism and spread the message of harmony among different sections of the society reports PTI. 9:48AM 11 Mar 18 Yogi Adityanath terms the SP-BSP alliance as opportunistic Terming the BSP-SP alliance as opportunistic Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said people would not vote for those who have set aside their rivalry to join hands in the bypolls for the two constituencies. He was talking to mediapersons outside a polling booth after casting his vote for Gorakhpur seat. 8:47AM 11 Mar 18 Bypolls also underway in Araria Lok Sabha seat and Jehanabad and Bhabhua Assembly seats in Bihar Bypolls to Araria Lok Sabha seat and Jehanabad and Bhabhua Assembly seats in Bihar are also underway. It will be the first major test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar since walking out of the Grand Alliance last year. The key challenge for NDA will be to wrest Araria Lok Sabha seat from RJD whose candidate Mohammed Taslimuddin defeated BJP s sitting MP Pradeep Kumar Singh in 2014. Araria had been with NDA since 1996. The contest is mainly between the late RJD MP s son Sarfaraz Alam and BJP s Pradip Singh. Follow Bihar bypolls LIVE updates here 8:43AM 11 Mar 18 Yogi Adityanath says wherever Rahul Gandhi goes Congress is decimated #WATCH People will throw away his appeal. Wherever he goes Congress is decimated because he works with a negative mindset : UP CM on Rahul Gandhi s statement saying If I was PM & someone had given me a file with #Demonetisation written on it I would ve thrown it in dustbin. pic.twitter.com/vhk1ORft1H ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11 2018 8:25AM 11 Mar 18 Yogi Adityanath says BJP will win both Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls with massive majority Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath says BJP will win both Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls with massive majority. He said the saffron party will win on the basis of Prime Minister Modi s governance of development. Commenting on 2019 elections he said the party will emerge victorious in that too. BJP will win both the by-polls (#Gorakhpur & #Phulpur ) with massive majority & on the basis of PM Modi s governance of development 2019 election results will also be good for the BJP: UP CM Yogi Adityanath pic.twitter.com/O0TY4VGfU3 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11 2018 7:53AM 11 Mar 18 Polling in Gorakhpur constituency underway Gorakhpur: Visuals from a polling station as voting begins. pic.twitter.com/CsnvXiekvw ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11 2018 7:40AM 11 Mar 18 Phulpur constituency all set for polling Visuals from a polling station in Phulpur. The Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after Keshav Prasad Maurya s resignation on assuming charge as UP Deputy CM. pic.twitter.com/cQk83vAct5 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11 2018 7:29AM 11 Mar 18 Yogi Adityanath casts his vote at a Gorakhpur polling station Gorakhpur: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath casts his vote for #GorakhpurByPoll at a polling station says For development and good governance BJP is necessary. pic.twitter.com/JxcYkIKnEI ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11 2018 7:16AM 11 Mar 18 UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a polling station in Gorakhpur to cast his vote Gorakhpur: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a polling station to cast his vote for Lok Sabha by-election. pic.twitter.com/5eFWfZMuEy ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11 2018 Tags: Adityanath Gorakhpur UP by elections Mohamed KhanMar 11 2018 at 10:10 amSo is bjp pdp alliance !!(3)(8) Reply Cross-over FilmsMar 11 2018 at 9:56 amThe male equivalent of Uma Bharathi Yogi adityanath is irrelevant as a floppy disc.(4)(7) Replyblackpower 666Mar 11 2018 at 10:26 amuma bharati - BJP s item girl!(0)(0) Reply blackpower 666Mar 11 2018 at 9:42 amof headrests in the land of yama yogi! UP always has the penchant for wishing to enter the guinness book of world records . s: ndtv /india-news/up-doctors-allegedly-use-mans-severed-foot-as-headrest-after-surgery-1822276?pfrom home-topscroll(1)(6) Reply MmadanguptaMar 11 2018 at 9:40 amgood yogi ji.(2)(15) Replyblackpower 666Mar 11 2018 at 9:51 amhow many statues have you p!ssed on? how many muslim women have you raped? how many muslim fetueses have you eviscerated? how many muslims have you killed/tortured/dismembered live? when are you finally going to summon the courage to cnduct your hindutva jihad in syria libya pak afghan iraq? when will you finally do an ajmal kasab? till then the world will call you - like they did your forefathers - a HDNDUTVA COWARD(1)(13) Reply Rajsekar BennakiMar 11 2018 at 9:29 amOld repeated dialogue. Invent something new stay in the sensational worldnof news. I am sure this man has neither a vision nor a plan. He is turning an already corrupt state into a police state.(1)(1) Reply Load More Comments
.story-content span .story-content p .story-content div color:#000!important;font-family: open sans Arial!important;font-size:15px!important ALSO READ Yogi govt taking credit for Lucknow Metro my other projects: Akhilesh Buoyed by civic poll sweep Adityanath to roll out 12 new policies in Dec Improved policing boosted investors confidence in UP: Yogi Adityanath Mission 2019: CM Adityanath to constitute Team Yogi after Gujarat results Yogi Adityanath in consolidation mode: Disbands government schemes posts span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 On February 3 2018 local policemen of Jhinjina village in Uttar Pradesh s Shamli district waited to nab an extortionist near a temple where he was supposed to come and collect the bounty. None of them had anticipated what they would lay their hands on. The police had received a complaint that the man had demanded Rs 10 million from a local panchayat member as blood money for not killing his family members. When two men on a motorcycle came to the designated spot to collect the extortion money they were apprehended by the police. The two men - one carrying a .32 bore pistol and the other a .315 rifle - opened fire on the policemen. After a protracted gun fight when the sound of shooting subsided the policemen began their combing operations. They stumbled upon an injured man named Akbar (alias Moosa) a resident of a nearby village in Shamli district in addition to cash guns and live ammunition. Akbar who suffered gunshot wounds in the battle was taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. On digging out the man s credentials the policemen found that Akbar was wanted in 13 cases - that included charges of robbery criminal intimidation stealing property dacoity carrying dangerous weapons and drug running. For the residents of villages in Shamli who were victims of Akbar s reign of terror his killing couldn t have come at a better time. Akbar is one of the 32 criminals shot dead by the Uttar Pradesh police since the Bharatiya Janata Party stormed to power in the state. The state s chief minister Yogi Adityanath has told the legislature that there have been more than 1 000 encounters since he has come to power. His government isn t finished yet. In addition to eliminating outlaws over 2 500 have been arrested and bounties have been placed on the heads of over 1 700 criminals. Uttar Pradesh s residents have often lived in fear. Women and girls even in big cities such as Lucknow and Kanpur have been victims of sexual harassment catcalls and stalking. The state s western region (where Akbar was killed) is particularly notorious for extortion gun running and rapes. A look at the condition of the state and prisons inherited by the Yogi Adityanath government from his predecessors partly explains his government s trigger-happy approach. Even for a state like Uttar Pradesh where poor criminal record keeping is accentuated by police reluctance to register cases the crime situation and prison scenarios are shocking. (See Graphic) Between 2008 to 2016 when the Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati and the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav were in power kidnapping cases in the state shot up by 193 per cent - higher than the national average. During Mayawati s tenure kidnapping and robbery cases had shot up by 64 per cent and 51 per cent respectively. There was no let down in murder cases during her tenure with killings rising more than the national average. During her successor Akhilesh Yadav s tenure it was the state s women who bore the brunt of the criminality. Between 2012 to 2016 rapes in the state rose by 145 per cent. Gang rapes which have been recently included as a separate crime head by the Home Ministry increased by 19 per cent even as gang rape cases across India showed a marginal decline. There was a three-fold increase in the number of assaults on women with an intention to outrage her modesty during this period while cases of sexual harassment more than doubled. Kidnapping cases meanwhile spiked by 79 per cent during Akhilesh Yadav s tenure. By 2016 the state witnessed the maximum number of guns and ammunition seized anywhere in India. It topped the charts in crimes against children. The state had the highest number of crimes against Dalits - one in every four crimes against India s lowest castes was committed in the state. The Western part of Uttar Pradesh where the police have carried out most of the encounters reported the maximum crimes in the state. While crime rates would be higher in India s most populous state Uttar Pradesh s criminals seem to have been impervious to the force of law used against them in the past. In many ways the state s patronage of criminals by the previous governments has neutralised the fear of incarceration and incentives of reformation. Home Ministry figures show that the number of murder convicts jailed in Uttar Pradesh rose 120 per cent between 2008 to 2015. In comparison the number of murder convicts jailed across India during this period rose by 15 per cent. Despite this massive increase in convicted murderers being thrown behind bars there was a 21 per cent increase in attempts to murder in the state. Cases of murder also increased in the state while they showed a decline across India. While jailing criminals did not help contain murders successive state governments failed to even deter other heinous crimes such as rapes. The number of convicted rapists increased by a third in jails across the state but rape cases spiked by 145 per cent. Sexual assaults on women also saw a triple-digit increase during this period. What further makes the crime situation dire in Uttar Pradesh is that while jails don t deter new criminals they also seem to have little effect on habitual offenders. Almost seven per cent of the criminals in jail had been behind bars more than once. Instances of recidivism among criminals declined across India while witnessing a rise in Uttar Pradesh. Even inside jail there seems to have been little incentive to reform the state s criminals. Uttar Pradesh had the highest instances of jail breaks across India and only a fraction of those who escaped from prison were ever apprehended again. Compounding this problem is the paucity of reformative facilities available in the state s jails for prisoners. Despite having the highest number of inmates among all states in India it has one of the lowest number of such prisoners receiving vocational training in jails. The state s burgeoning prisons hold over 88 000 convicts and under-trials. Less than 1 per cent of these prisoners are imparted vocational training that could potentially channelise their criminal energies towards less destructive endeavours. Even among those who are imparted vocational training or have engaged in some kind of productive enterprise their output is abysmal. The state s inmates produced just about Rs 150 million worth of goods in 2015 that s a per capita output value of around Rs 1 700. In comparison states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu which have a fraction of the prisoners in Uttar Pradesh produced goods worth Rs 230 million and Rs 480 million respectively. The vicious cycle of criminality in the state has shown its impact on the state s business environment. Reserve Bank of India statistics show that gross fixed capital formation in the state plummeted 39 per cent between 2012 to 2015. Even as the invested capital in the state increased the productive capital in the state fell by 12 per cent during the same period. An impact of reducing crime on a region s economy and its people can be borne out by what is happening in Philippines whose President Rodrigo Duterte was one of the ASEAN chief guests at this year s Republic Day parade. A look at the daily briefings of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency shows that there have been killings and arrests almost every day after Duterte came to power in July 2016. Philippines media reports suggest that there has been a 22 per cent drop in crime since 2016. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 3 000 criminals (including suspected drug users) have been killed after Duterte came to power. While crime has reduced there is also enhanced optimism about the impact of Duterte s crackdown on his country s economic prospects. The World Bank estimates The Philippines grew in the first half of 2017 faster than Indonesia Thailand Malaysia and Vietnam but slower than China. Following strong growth in the immediate months after the new administration assumed office in July 2016 the economy had a slow start in the first half of 2017. While the demographic dynamics geographical attributes and criminal profiles of Uttar Pradesh might be different from Philippines there is no denying the fact that diminishing the state s criminality could go a long way in boosting the business profile of the state. After all law & order would be one of the things on the minds of many an investor who had promised to pump in more than Rs 4 trillion in the state during a recently concluded investors summit. With Yogi Adityanath adopting an Iron Fist approach Uttar Pradesh could at best get a temporary reprieve from criminals who had made parts of the state a living hell for its law abiding residents. But his government would have to ensure that this Bang Bang policy doesn t backfire in the times to come. .
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today directed district police chiefs to ensure security of statues of known figures following Dalit icon B R Ambedkar s statue being vandalised in Meerut. The chief minister s directions comes amid a spate of incidents targeting statues and busts of icons in the country. Maintaining law and order is the priority of the state and the government will take strict action against those involved in vitiating it. District police chiefs should remain alert and ensure security of statues of icons he said here. Strict action should be taken against those involved in the Meerut incident and measures should be taken to ensure that such incidents do not recur Adityanath said. The statue of the Dalit icon was vandalised on Tuesday and replaced yesterday by the administration. In Kolkata a bust of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee was damaged yesterday following the razing of statues of Soviet icon Vladimir Illyich Lenin in Tripura. The bust of Dravidian movement founder E V Ramasamy Periyar in Tamil Nadu s Vellore was also desecrated triggering widespread protests across the state.
By: Express News Service | Lucknow | Published: March 9 2018 3:54 am Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (Express) Related News Gorakhpur Phulpur bye-elections: Yogi Adityanath s charisma vs SP-BSP combineUP by-elections: Gorakhpur Phulpur go to polls tomorrow all you need to knowYogi Adityanath invokes Aurangzeb rule goes all out to hold Gorakhpur marginTWO DAYS after a statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar was vandalised in Meerut UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Thursday ordered police officers to protect statues of all icons in their districts. Maintaining that strict action should be taken against those involved in the Meerut incident Adityanath said in a statement: Maintaining peace is the top priority of the state government. Strict action will be taken against anti-social elements disturbing peaceful atmosphere in the state. He went on to ask district magistrates and SPs in districts to be vigilant about security of statues. Asking officials to identify those involved in the Meerut incident he said that it should be ensured that such incidents are not repeated. BSP chief Mayawati meanwhile demanded that those disturbing peace and harmony by vandalising statues should be booked under the sedition law. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App More Related News Ambedkar statue vandalised: Adityanath tells police to ensure security Mayawati says book vandals for sedition UP rights panel probes 4 encounters with 1 FIR script: Suspects on bikes fired at cops Tags: Yogi Adityanath No Comments.
Gorakhpur: The BJP s good show in the recent assembly polls in Tripura Nagaland and Meghalaya prompted arch-rivals SP and BSP to come together for the upcoming Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityamath said in Gorakhpur on Thursday.Addressing an election rally he said SP and BSP traded and deceived the feelings of people. This alliance is an alliance of opportunists. The state is moving on the way of development and investors are coming to the state for investment. Earlier when they wanted to invest here the person sitting in the government used to ask for his/her share and how one can think of development wherein the government is thief and corrupt he said. How could one think of development when the person sitting in government was protecting criminals he added.The chief minister asked the people to vote for BJP candidate Upendra Shukla. CommentsBypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held on March 11.The BJP routed the Left in Tripura and formed government in Nagaland and Meghalaya in alliance with smaller parties.
Byelections to Gorakhpur and Phulpur parliamentary constituencies necessitated because Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Keshav Pradesh Maurya resigned from their respective Lok Sabha constituencies last year will take place on Sunday. It will be the first political test for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh since winning India s most populous state by a record margin exactly a year ago. Results of the byelections will prove whether Adityanath s pick as chief minister a controversial choice given the BJP leader s history of communal speeches and hardline Hindutva position will be vindicated. Victory for the BJP s candidates in the bypolls would mean the electorate is still firmly behind the saffron party that one-year of Adityanath s rule hasn t dented the party s popularity. However if the Samajwadi Party or the Congress manage to pip BJP to the spot the Opposition is certain to claim electorate in Uttar Pradesh is eager to see a change and is already tiring of the polarising nature of the Adityanath government. As reported by The Hindu the Congress is already painting the bypolls as a referendum on Adityanath s policies. Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh said People in Uttar Pradesh are looking for a change. I am confident that voters in the byelections will give a befitting reply to the BJP for their anti-people policies. Gorakhpur a BJP bastion Of the two bypolls its Gorakhpur which will be keenly watched by political decoders. The town in eastern Uttar Pradesh is a BJP stronghold and the saffron party has been in power here since 1989. Adityanath himself is a five-time MP from the temple town and his elevation as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is an indication that the party plans to continue with the politics pursued by him during his 20 years in charge of the constituency. Keshav Prasad Maurya and Yogi Adityanath resigned as Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister and chief minister respectively. Courtesy: Facebook/@Keshav Prasad Maurya However the last one year has not been good for the administration in this town. Especially the tragedy that hit Gorakhpur s Baba Raghav Das Medical College in August last year when over 70 infants died at the hospital s encephalitis ward due to lack of oxygen. In all the death toll at the hospital for the year 2017 was 1 304. In January this year there was more tragedy in store as a massive fire engulfed large parts of the hospital destroying the principal s office and important documents in the records room. The Opposition already used the issue to slam the state government with Congress accusing the government of protecting the guilty . In the days leading up to the bypolls this is likely to be one of the issues dominating the agenda. Phulpur Nehru s constituency If Gorakhpur has been a BJP stronghold for the last two decades Phulpur holds significance for the Congress party. It was the constituency from where India s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru contested elections. Apart from Nehru his sister Vijaylakshmi Pandit and former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri also contested elections from Phulpur. As reported by The Times of India three years ago Phulpur fell out of Congress hands in 2004 when Samajwadi Party s Atiq Ahmed won from here. He was followed by Bahujan Samaj Party s (BSP) Kapilmuni Karwariya. The Bharatiya Janata Party finally got on the scoresheet four years ago in 2014 when Maurya won the constituency. The Congress has made past attempts at regaining this constituency even giving former Test cricketer Mohammad Kaif a ticket in 2014. While Kaif lost to Maurya eventually he did connect with a majority of the constituency s young voters. A majority of the voters of the city have after delimitation become voters of Phulpur which earlier comprised only the sprawling and populous trans-Ganga region of Allahabad district. SP-BSP tie-up The Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) who have been relegated to virtual anonymity in Uttar Pradesh because of the BJP juggernaut have joined forces to make it a three-pronged battle in both byelections this week. As reported by Firstpost on Monday SP and BSP are fighting with their backs to the wall. Divided they realised it rather late in the day that they would be facing a virtual extinction if not political obliteration altogether. But it would be equally wrong to assume that their coming together would consolidate the social bases they represent wrote Ajay Singh. Historically the SP and BSP have always appealed to different demographics of Uttar Pradesh s large and fragmented population. But in coming together to take on the collective might of the BJP the parties have shown a pragmatism that was lacking in earlier years. But even more significantly if SP and BSP can set aside their differences and field a joint candidate there is hope that there could be a grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh along the lines of what Nitish Kumar s JD(U) Lalu Prasad Yadav s RJD and the Congress managed in Bihar in 2015. And just like the Mahagathbandhan tasted success in Bihar Uttar Pradesh too may see a change of guard. Candidates in the fray The Samajwadi Party has fielded Pravin Nishad from Gorakhpur and Nagendra Singh Patel from Phulpur. BSP chief Mayawati has decided to offer the party s support to the two candidates but that needs to be taken in perspective. The BSP has traditionally never fielded candidates in byelections unless it s the party in power as reported by Firstpost on Tuesday. So the BSP s decision of offering support to the SP candidate comes as a win-win for everybody concerned. The SP gets the support of a bitter rival while the BSP wasn t required to make any sacrifices either. And though Mayawati was quick to clarify that the party had no plans of tying up with any other party there are hopes already rising about a united coalition to take on the saffron behemoth. The BJP on its part has fielded former Varanasi mayor Kaushalendra Singh Patel from Phulpur and seasoned organisational leader Upendra Shukla from Gorakhpur. The choice of Shukla is seen as an outreach by the party to Brahmins who are the largest upper caste community in the state and have been the BJP s traditional vote bank. Meanwhile the Congress has insisted it isn t about to join forces with anybody opting to go it solo in both constituencies. The Congress has already declared its candidates for the byelections to Phulpur and Gorakhpur Parliamentary seats and will contest independently of any understanding or tie-up that other parties have Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar told PTI. In Gorakhpur party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said that Dr Sureetha will be its candidate while local leader Manish Mishra will contest from Phulpur. With inputs from agencies
Written by Maulshree Seth | Lucknow | Updated: March 7 2018 8:53 am UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (File) Related News Gorakhpur Phulpur bye-elections: Yogi Adityanath s charisma vs SP-BSP combineUP by-elections: Gorakhpur Phulpur go to polls tomorrow all you need to knowYogi Adityanath invokes Aurangzeb rule goes all out to hold Gorakhpur marginTensions ran high in the state Assembly on Tuesday as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath responded to Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary s remark that he was a CM only to so-called Hindus said he does not celebrate Eid and is proud of being a Hindu. Main Eid nahi manata hun main Hindu hun.. mujhe garva ki anubhuti hoti hai . Ghar mein baith kar koi janeu pehne aur bahar topi pehenke nikle yeh dhong aur pakhand BJP sarkar nahi kar sakti (I do not celebrate Eid I am a Hindu and I am proud of it. Wearing a sacred thread at home but coming out wearing a cap this kind of hypocrisy is not something the BJP government indulges in) he said adding that if someone wants to celebrate Eid peacefully the government would provide all support. The chief minister further said Hindu hone pe garva ki anubhuti hona koi galat baat nahi hai (There is nothing wrong in being proud of being a Hindu). Lashing out at rival parties in his reply to the motion of thanks to the Governor s address he further said that while their governments used to teach students Ga se Gadha (donkey) his government had changed it to Ga se Ganesha . The chief minister also told the Opposition that the red cap which is symbolic of the Samajwadi Party would be brought down the same way his party had brought down the red flag in Tripura. He added that the time of Bhagwa and kesariya had come leading to an uproar in the Assembly. Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary on way to attend the Assembly session in Lucknow on Tuesday. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav) Earlier in the day Chaudhary had while speaking on the proposed amendment to the motion of thanks to the Governor s address said that the present government was playing with the expectations of Dalit backwards and Muslims . He further alleged that it appeared that Adityanath was the CM of only Tathakathit Hindus (so-called Hindus) and advised him to try to become a chief minister to all. Bringing up a recent statement made by Adityanath during Holi celebrations in Mathura Chaudhary said that while just like Holi and Diwali are celebrated by the former Eid was equally significant and claiming he does not celebrate Eid because he is a Hindu is against the decorum of the post he holds. Yeh pure mukhya mantri nahi hain pura mukhya mantri banne ka prayas karen Chaudhary said. Citing the Kansganj violence Chaudhary also alleged that if the country would ever be divided it would due to the wrong policies of the BJP. The leader of opposition further said that there was a new trend of taking out Tiranga Yatras just to extend the differences between Hindus and Muslims and alleged Apka prateek Bhagwa raha hai. Responding to his statements Adityanath warned Bharat nahi tootega.. Lekin Bharat ko todne walon ko tod denge (India won t break but we will break those who try to break it). He referred to the Samajwadi Party as vighatankari (separatists) and aaj ke yug ka sabse bada andhavishwas (the biggest superstition of present time) . Chaudhary said that the BSP and SP have come together because BJP was ignoring the interests of the poor Dalits Muslims and Backwards. In response Adityanath said both parties have become the Bahujan Samajwadi Party and it was not clear who has merged with whom advising the SP to sit in BSP s lap . Claiming that no fake encounters had taken place in the state the chief minister alleged that among those encroaching lands in Uttar Pradesh maximum bhu mafias were associated with the Samajwadi Party and that SP members were behind the incidents in Ayodhya Hardoi Sitapur Allahabad. Asserting that no communal violence had taken place in Uttar Pradesh in the past one year the chief minister citing the Kasganj incident said that whoever tries to forcefully stop Tiranga Yatras would not be spared. Warning the SP he said Tripura mein lal jhande ko duba diya hai Pradesh mein lal topi ko duba denge. Lal topi nahi chalegi ab Bhagwa ka samay aa gaya hai Kesariya ka samaya aa gaya hai As his statement led to an uproar in the Assembly he repeated Lal jhande ke baad.. Lal topi ki bari hai (After the red flag (came down) it is now the turn of the red cap). The House was adjourned till March 11. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App More Related News Fake madrasas costing UP govt Rs 100 crore annually: Minister Lakshmi Narain Chowdhury Ambedkar statue vandalised: Adityanath tells police to ensure security Mayawati says book vandals for sedition Tags: DO NOT USE Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath VvatsalMar 9 2018 at 11:27 amyogiji is right. BJP leaders do not believe in being nautankis like (being HIndu by accident and expressing to be a Christian by cutting cakes and waring topis and being a dhongi musalman . Also Yogiji would banish nation-breakers (unlike Congress SP and BSP and Commies). It is overt and covert backing provided to present-day admirers of Jinnah by Congis Commies SP and BSP which emboldens them.(0)(2) Reply MManoj ChakravartyMar 8 2018 at 7:16 am Main Eid nahi manata hun main Hindu hun.. mujhe garva ki anubhuti hoti hai Define Hinduism Mr. Adityanath if you have the the intellect which I wager you don t for every twisted and morally depraved belief that you have I can challenge it with authentic substance. People like you are a disgrace to this nation. You are pariah and a shame to the country. I can refute your vegetarianism your idol worship your polytheism and the whole lot of false and indoctrinated beliefs that you are spreading in the name of religion. I would like to draw the attention of the people of the country to read the article By rewriting history Hindu nationalists aim to assert their dominance over India published by Reuters dated March 6 to understand what this cabal of anti-nationals are doing to our education system and spreading pure and deliberate disinformation in this country. This can only be classified as an utter wave of corrupt and destructive theocracy.(8)(14) ReplySiddharth GhoshMar 8 2018 at 7:57 pmOnly cowards give justifications. Why shud Hindus even gift sweets to Muslims on Eid. they say there is no God but Allah Quran hadith are full of verses to kill Non Muslims. There is an entire Hadith Prophet telling to conquer kill Hindus in India The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said Allah has protected two groups of my Ummah from the fire of Hell: a group that will conquer India and a group that will be with Eesa son of Maryam (alaihis am) https://oxfordbrookes.academia.edu/AhmedKhan. Nasai Kitab-ul-Jihad Bab: Ghazwat-ul-Hind Following the surrender of the Qurayza stronghold Muhammad ordered the execution of every male child who had reached puberty. His men had the boys drop their pants so that they could chop the head off of anyone with pubic hair (Sahih Muslim 4390). I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved so strike them upon the necks and strike from them every fingfingertip.(Quran 8.12)(1)(4) ReplyMManoj ChakravartyMar 9 2018 at 6:33 amThis is not about the greatness of one religion over another it s about the respect for the cons ution that we are governed by and are deemed to respect. By spewing hate this administration has in fact vilified the cons ution. I m not ing any justification as you have stated and neither am I a coward. Find me one person who writes as boldly as I do with the conviction of purpose and determination. Read my daily comments on various newspaper articles and you will know who are the cowards in our midst. As for Hinduism I only write about issues that I have proof there is no emotion or sentiment here nor is there any bias whatsoever. India today is blinded and indoctrinated by false beliefs and one of the pioneers who championed against it most respectfully Dr. Dabolkar was gunned down close to his house. People who cannot substance of respectful disagreement resort to hateful violence and a lot of this is now expressly visible in the media.(2)(0) Priya SinghMar 8 2018 at 1:21 amI Proud to be an Indian and I respect all the religions of India.(10)(6) Reply NNaveed Ali KhanMar 7 2018 at 9:48 pmDon t celebrate Eid we don t care a dam about you at the same time tell your Hindu fanatics not to beg during Hindu festivals(9)(16) Reply NNithinMar 7 2018 at 8:22 pmThere is nothing wrong with him NOT CELEBRATING EID . Its his personal choice. But i would have felt much happier if he joined in the celebration.(10)(6) Reply Load More Comments

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar bypolls: Adityanath casts vote; top 10 developments

.story-content span .story-content p .story-content div color:#000!important;font-family: open sans Arial!important;font-size:15px!important ALSO READ UP civic poll: High-octane electioneering closes in Ayodhya Will Yogi Adityanath s Bang Bang policy in Uttar Pradesh backfire? Adityanath ups the ante in UP civic polls; to hold rally in Ayodhya today UP civic polls: Sonia s pocket borough to vote in Gandhis absentia Buoyed by civic poll sweep Adityanath to roll out 12 new policies in Dec span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 Voting for key Lok Sabha constituencies of Gorakhpur and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh has begun. The bypolls were necessitated after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their seats to assume their respective offices in the state government. Yogi Adityanath while casting his vote on Sunday early morning said For development and good governance BJP is necessary. Voting in the by-elections started at around 7 am in the morning according to reports by news agency ANI. The Uttar Pradesh CM slammed Congress chief Rahul Gandhi s criticism of note ban saying People will throw away http://www.blogster.com/kkflipkart/flipkart-deals-in-shopozo his appeal. Wherever he goes Congress is decimated because he works with a negative mindset . Earlier Rahul had said If I was PM & someone had given me a file with demonetisation written on it I would ve thrown it in dustbin. Bypolls for Bihar s Lok Sabha Araria seat and two assembly seats -Jehanabad and Bhabua- are also being held on Sunday. The bye-elections in Bihar are being seen as a Litmus test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he exited the Grand Alliance between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Congress and his party Janata Dal (United). The results for both states will be declared on March 14. Here are the top 10 developments surrounding the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar bypolls: Uttar Pradesh 1. Candidates in the fray In Gorakhpur the key contenders are Upendra Shukla from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Praveen Nishad from Samajwadi Party (SP) and Surhita Chatterjee Karim from Congress. Meanwhile candidates in the fray for the Phulpur seat are Kaushalendra Singh Patel from the BJP Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel from the SP and Manish Mishra from the Congress. 2. Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party join hands: The BSP burying its 25-year-old bitter rivalry with the SP has extended its support to the SP nominees on both seats 3. Raj Babbar slams Akhilesh Yadav Speaking on the sidelines of the campaign that ended on March 10 Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) chief Raj Babbar said his party wanted to join hands with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the SP but this did not happen due to Akhilesh Yadav s stubborness . The Congress leader maintained that an SP-BSP-Congress alliance in the bypolls would have made sure that both the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats were snathced from the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress and SP had forged an alliance for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections but were routed in an electoral onslaught by the BJP. While the SP was voted out of power and its tally slipped to 47 from 224 in the 2017 assembly polls the Congress could win only seven seats. 4. Secular parties have to come together to oust Narendra Modi in 2019 Raj Babbar also claimed that to oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019 all secular parties will have to join forces and put up a united front. The actor-turned-politician claimed that otherwise defeating the BJP would not be easy . 5. PM Narendra Modi Amit Shah lookalikes campaign for BJP in Uttar Pradesh Choosing a unique way to campaign for Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bye-elections lookalikes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah have hit the streets of Gorakhpur to gather support for the BJP. The pair interacted with people on the busy market streets and also offered prayers at a temple. We have come from Delhi. My name is Ranveer and we have been visiting all the markets for a week talking to people. The response has been warm the prime minister lookalike told ANI. The Amit Shah of the pair said We have received so much love from the public that I think we will win by five lakh votes. Bihar 6. Bypolls in Araria Bhabua Jehanabad: The Araria seat fell vacant after the death of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Taslimuddin. The key contenders for the seat are RJD s Sarafaraz Alam Taslimuddin s son and the BJP s Pradip Singh. The Bhabua assembly seat got vacant after the death of BJP s Anand Bhushan Pandey and the party has fielded his widow Rinki Rani Pandey. Another key candidate for the seat is Shambhu Patel from Congress. The death of RJD MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav necessitated the bypoll for Jehanabad seat and his son Uday Yadav is contesting for the seat. Another key candidate in the fray is JDU s Abhiram Sharma. 7. BJP Bihar chief says RJD win would turn Araria into ISI hub Bharatiya Janata Party s (BJP) Bihar chief Nityanand Rai on Friday said that Araria will turn into an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) hub if Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) wins in the upcoming Lok Sabha bypoll election. If (Sarfaraz Alam of RJD) wins then Araria would turn into an ISI hub said BJP s Bihar Chief Nityanand Rai while speaking at a public rally. Araria is a muslim-dominated area with over 40 percent of the population belonging to the religion. Rai went on to say that if Pradip Singh a bypoll candidate happens to win the election then the area would remain a hub of patriots. 8. High stakes for NDA and Mahagathbandhan: Both National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Grand Alliance are using the bypolls as an opportunity to prove their superiority over the other in terms of popularity among the masses. While the NDA leaders are confident that they will win all the three seats the Grand Alliance leaders have repeatedly claimed to pull out victory even in the absence of their star campaigner and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad -- behind bars in connection with two fodder scam cases. 9. Nitish Kumar second fiddle to BJP? This round of bypolls provides both the BJP and the RJD an opportunity to take on each other directly in Bihar as a precursor to parliamentary polls next year when they will also most likely be the main opponents. Ever since the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JD-U) joined the NDA back the BJP has virtually replaced the former as the main rival to Lalu Prasad s RJD. This has triggered a debate in the political circles whether Nitish Kumar has accepted the role of a junior partner in state politics. By accepting the BJP offer to contest from Jehannabad after announcing publicly not to fight the by-elections the JD-U has given an opportunity to the BJP to prove that it is number one in Bihar NDA. 10. BJP s message of accommodative politics: A senior BJP leader said that party has decided in favour of the JD-U to contest from Jehanabad to send a political message that the NDA can accommodate its allies to keep the alliance stable. The current bypoll equations are also likely to reflect in the seat-sharing between the BJP and the JD-U for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections said a senior JD-U leader who did not want to be named.
Lucknow: Voting for the bye-elections to Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh commenced on Sunday amid tight security. The bypolls were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats respectively following their election to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council. Termed by Adityanath a rehearsal for the 2019 Lok Sabha election the bye-elections are witnessing a triangular contest involving the ruling BJP the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress. Representational image. PTI The saffron party has fielded Kaushalendra Singh Patel from Phulpur and Upendra Dutt Shukla from Gorakhpur against the SP s Pravin Nishad and Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel respectively. The Congress has nominated Sureetha Kareem for Gorakhpur and Manish Mishra for Phulpur Lok Sabha seat. Ten candidates are in the fray from Gorakhpur while 22 candidates are contesting from Phulpur. Apart from the Provincial Armed Constabulary and homeguards 65 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed to ensure peaceful bypolls. In Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency there are 970 polling centres and 2141 polling booths while in Phulpur there are 793 polling centres and 2059 polling booths. According to the Election Commission there 19.61 lakh voters in Phulpur parliamentary constituency while there are 19.49 lakh electorate for Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat. As many as 4 728 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines are being used in the bypoll and provisions for webcasting from 95 critical booths have been made. Gorakhpur is significant for the BJP as it is the bastion of the chief minister who represented the seat in the Lok Sabha five times. Prior to Yogi Adityanath the seat was represented in Parliament by his mentor Yogi Avaidyanath thrice. Phulpur once represented by India s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru witnessed a saffron surge in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and Maurya won there. Follow LIVE updates on UP by-election here
.story-content span .story-content p .story-content div color:#000!important;font-family: open sans Arial!important;font-size:15px!important ALSO READ Yogi govt taking credit for Lucknow Metro my other projects: Akhilesh Buoyed by civic poll sweep Adityanath to roll out 12 new policies in Dec Improved policing boosted investors confidence in UP: Yogi Adityanath Mission 2019: CM Adityanath to constitute Team Yogi after Gujarat results Yogi Adityanath in consolidation mode: Disbands government schemes posts span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 On February 3 2018 local policemen of Jhinjina village in Uttar Pradesh s Shamli district waited to nab an extortionist near a temple where he was supposed to come and collect the bounty. None of them had anticipated what they would lay their hands on. The police had received a complaint that the man had demanded Rs 10 million from a local panchayat member as blood money for not killing his family members. When two men on a motorcycle came to the designated spot to collect the extortion money they were apprehended by the police. The two men - one carrying a .32 bore pistol and the other a .315 rifle - opened fire on the policemen. After a protracted gun fight when the sound of shooting subsided the policemen began their combing operations. They stumbled upon an injured man named Akbar (alias Moosa) a resident of a nearby village in Shamli district in addition to cash guns and live ammunition. Akbar who suffered gunshot wounds in the battle was taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. On digging out the man s credentials the policemen found that Akbar was wanted in 13 cases - that included charges of robbery criminal intimidation stealing property dacoity carrying dangerous weapons and drug running. For the residents of villages in Shamli who were victims of Akbar s reign of terror his killing couldn t have come at a better time. Akbar is one of the 32 criminals shot dead by the Uttar Pradesh police since the Bharatiya Janata Party stormed to power in the state. The state s chief minister Yogi Adityanath has told the legislature that there have been more than 1 000 encounters since he has come to power. His government isn t finished yet. In addition to eliminating outlaws over 2 500 have been arrested and bounties have been placed on the heads of over 1 700 criminals. Uttar Pradesh s residents have often lived in fear. Women and girls even in big cities such as Lucknow and Kanpur have been victims of sexual harassment catcalls and stalking. The state s western region (where Akbar was killed) is particularly notorious for extortion gun running and rapes. A look at the condition of the state and prisons inherited by the Yogi Adityanath government from his predecessors partly explains his government s trigger-happy approach. Even for a state like Uttar Pradesh where poor criminal record keeping is accentuated by police reluctance to register cases the crime situation and prison scenarios are shocking. (See Graphic) Between 2008 to 2016 when the Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati and the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav were in power kidnapping cases in the state shot up by 193 per cent - higher than the national average. During Mayawati s tenure kidnapping and robbery cases had shot up by 64 per cent and 51 per cent respectively. There was no let down in murder cases during her tenure with killings rising more than the national average. During her successor Akhilesh Yadav s tenure it was the state s women who bore the brunt of the criminality. Between 2012 to 2016 rapes in the state rose by 145 per cent. Gang rapes which have been recently included as a separate crime head by the Home Ministry increased by 19 per cent even as gang rape cases across India showed a marginal decline. There was a three-fold increase in the number of assaults on women with an intention to outrage her modesty during this period while cases of sexual harassment more than doubled. Kidnapping cases meanwhile spiked by 79 per cent during Akhilesh Yadav s tenure. By 2016 the state witnessed the maximum number of guns and ammunition seized anywhere in India. It topped the charts in crimes against children. The state had the highest number of crimes against Dalits - one in every four crimes against India s lowest castes was committed in the state. The Western part of Uttar Pradesh where the police have carried out most of the encounters reported the maximum crimes in the state. While crime rates would be higher in India s most populous state Uttar Pradesh s criminals seem to have been impervious to the force of law used against them in the past. In many ways the state s patronage of criminals by the previous governments has neutralised the fear of incarceration and incentives of reformation. Home Ministry figures show that the number of murder convicts jailed in Uttar Pradesh rose 120 per cent between 2008 to 2015. In comparison the number of murder convicts jailed across India during this period rose by 15 per cent. Despite this massive increase in convicted murderers being thrown behind bars there was a 21 per cent increase in attempts to murder in the state. Cases of murder also increased in the state while they showed a decline across India. While jailing criminals did not help contain murders successive state governments failed to even deter other heinous crimes such as rapes. The number of convicted rapists increased by a third in jails across the state but rape cases spiked by 145 per cent. Sexual assaults on women also saw a triple-digit increase during this period. What further makes the crime situation dire in Uttar Pradesh is that while jails don t deter new criminals they also seem to have little effect on habitual offenders. Almost seven per cent of the criminals in jail had been behind bars more than once. Instances of recidivism among criminals declined across India while witnessing a rise in Uttar Pradesh. Even inside jail there seems to have been little incentive to reform the state s criminals. Uttar Pradesh had the highest instances of jail breaks across India and only a fraction of those who escaped from prison were ever apprehended again. Compounding this problem is the paucity of reformative facilities available in the state s jails for prisoners. Despite having the highest number of inmates among all states in India it has one of the lowest number of such prisoners receiving vocational training in jails. The state s burgeoning prisons hold over 88 000 convicts and under-trials. Less than 1 per cent of these prisoners are imparted vocational training that could potentially channelise their criminal energies towards less destructive endeavours. Even among those who are imparted vocational training or have engaged in some kind of productive enterprise their output is abysmal. The state s inmates produced just about Rs 150 million worth of goods in 2015 that s a per capita output value of around Rs 1 700. In comparison states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu which have a fraction of the prisoners in Uttar Pradesh produced goods worth Rs 230 million and Rs 480 million respectively. The vicious cycle of criminality in the state has shown its impact on the state s business environment. Reserve Bank of India statistics show that gross fixed capital formation in the state plummeted 39 per cent between 2012 to 2015. Even as the invested capital in the state increased the productive capital in the state fell by 12 per cent during the same period. An impact of reducing crime on a region s economy and its people can be borne out by what is happening in Philippines whose President Rodrigo Duterte was one of the ASEAN chief guests at this year s Republic Day parade. A look at the daily briefings of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency shows that there have been killings and arrests almost every day after Duterte came to power in July 2016. Philippines media reports suggest that there has been a 22 per cent drop in crime since 2016. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 3 000 criminals (including suspected drug users) have been killed after Duterte came to power. While crime has reduced there is also enhanced optimism about the impact of Duterte s crackdown on his country s economic prospects. The World Bank estimates The Philippines grew in the first half of 2017 faster than Indonesia Thailand Malaysia and Vietnam but slower than China. Following strong growth in the immediate months after the new administration assumed office in July 2016 the economy had a slow start in the first half of 2017. While the demographic dynamics geographical attributes and criminal profiles of Uttar Pradesh might be different from Philippines there is no denying the fact that diminishing the state s criminality could go a long way in boosting the business profile of the state. After all law & order would be one of the things on the minds of many an investor who had promised to pump in more than Rs 4 trillion in the state during a recently concluded investors summit. With Yogi Adityanath adopting an Iron Fist approach Uttar Pradesh could at best get a temporary reprieve from criminals who had made parts of the state a living hell for its law abiding residents. But his government would have to ensure that this Bang Bang policy doesn t backfire in the times to come. .
By: PTI | Lucknow | Published: March 8 2018 5:27 pm Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (File) Related News Gorakhpur Phulpur bye-elections: Yogi Adityanath s charisma vs SP-BSP combineUP by-elections: Gorakhpur Phulpur go to polls tomorrow all you need to knowYogi Adityanath invokes Aurangzeb rule goes all out to hold Gorakhpur marginUttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday directed district police chiefs to ensure security of statues of known figures following Dalit icon B R Ambedkar s statue being vandalised in Meerut. The chief minister s directions comes amid a spate of incidents targeting statues and busts of icons in the country. Maintaining law and order is the priority of the state and the government will take strict action against those involved in vitiating it. District police chiefs should remain alert and ensure security of statues of icons he said here. Strict action should be taken against those involved in the Meerut incident and measures should be taken to ensure that such incidents do not recur Adityanath said. The statue of the Dalit icon was vandalised on Tuesday and replaced yesterday by the administration. In Kolkata a bust of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee was damaged yesterday following the razing of statues of Soviet icon Vladimir Illyich Lenin in Tripura. The bust of Dravidian movement founder E V Ramasamy Periyar in Tamil Nadu s Vellore was also desecrated triggering widespread protests across the state. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App More Related News Ambedkar statue vandalised: Adityanath tells police to ensure security Mayawati says book vandals for sedition UP rights panel probes 4 encounters with 1 FIR script: Suspects on bikes fired at cops Tags: Yogi Adityanath No Comments.
Azamgarh: A statue of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was allegedly vandalised on Saturday in a village in Azamgarh adding to the string of such incidents in the country targeting political icons and social reformers.The statue of Ambedkar installed in Rajapatti village under Captanganj police station area was found vandalised this morning by the villagers who informed the police SP rural Narendra Pratap Singh said. Infuriated over the incident locals started gathering in the area. Police and senior officials rushed to the village and pacified them the SP said.The repair work has started and efforts are on to identify the miscreants the SP said.Strict action will be taken against all those found involved in the incident the SP added. CommentsThis is the second incident of its kind in the state after a statue was vandalised on Wednesday in Meerut and was later replaced.Similar incidents have also been reported from other parts of the country with statues of communist leader Vladimir Lenin social reformer Ramasamy Periyar s and Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee being vandalised in recent days.
By: PTI | Azamgarh | Published: March 10 2018 8:35 pm The statue of Ambedkar installed in Rajapatti village under Captanganj police station area was found vandalised on Saturday morning. (Photo: Twitter/ANI) Top News WATCH: What happened when Shashi Tharoor took a Hindi vocabulary test?TV actor found hanging at her flat in KolkataFamily Time with Kapil Sharma teaser: Kapil has moved past his controversial phase says waqt bura tha Miscreants allegedly vandalised the statue of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar in a village in Azamgarh adding to the string of such incidents in the country targeting political icons and social reformers. The statue of Ambedkar installed in Rajapatti village under Captanganj police station area was found vandalised on Saturday morning by the villagers who informed the police SP rural Narendra Pratap Singh said. Infuriated over the incident locals started gathering in the area. Police and senior officials rushed to the village and pacified them the SP said. The repair work has started and efforts are on to identify the miscreants the SP said. Strict action will be taken against all those found involved in the incident the SP added. This is the second incident of its kind in the state after a statue was vandalised on Wednesday in Meerut and was later replaced. Similar incidents have also been reported from other parts of the country with statues of communist leader Vladimir Lenin social reformer Ramasamy Periyar s and Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee being vandalised in recent days. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App More Top News Murder at School: The crime that shook the Capital also changed two families forever Pro-freedom slogans raised at Sri Sri s event in Srinagar people leave midway KKumarpushpMar 11 2018 at 2:33 am120 million Dalits should join together and burn down Hindu temple in there areas because Hindus are demolishing Dr Ambedkar statue.once Dalits will start demolishing Hindu temple then these bar barricades Hindus will stop demolishing Dr Ambedkar statue.(0)(0) Reply Sudalaimani SoundararajMar 10 2018 at 9:57 pmThe Bramins in RSS and BJP are responsible for damaging the statue of the father of Indian cos tution. The bramin population in India is almost two percent only . But these people bent on damaging the thirty percent people s icon Ambedkar statue. Whereas the SC/ ST / OBC population is more than eighty percent. So far SC / ST people are keeping quiet but this trend will not continue for ever. Stop damaging the statues of Ambedkar and Periar otherwise these people have to give heavy price.(2)(0) Reply יִםךטאַרןמןאטMar 10 2018 at 9:02 pmHindu-Fascism in full swing(1)(0) Reply

LUCKNOW: This month s Lok Sabha bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur and the Rajya Sabha elections will be major tests for the BSP and the SP to assess the potential for their new bonhomie and judge the public appetite for any future alliance. The elections will also be an opportunity for a public scrutiny of the Opposition unity especially after BSP chief Mayawati dropped hints recently that her party was willing for a quid-pro-quo deal with the SP and the Congress for the Rajya Sabha polls. On Sunday she however ruled out the possibility of an electoral alliance for the Lok Sabha bypolls. Mayawati said if SP and BSP legislators transfer their votes to defeat the BJP in Rajya Sabha and UP Legislative Council polls it should not be seen as an electoral alliance. Our party after holding deliberations with the SP has decided that our party worker will go to Rajya Sabha. In return we will help them in Legislative Council polls she said. The Lok Sabha bypolls are scheduled for March 11 and the elections for Rajya Sabha seats will take place on March 23. The Lok Sabha seats were vacated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya after the UP assembly polls last year. Gorakhpur is Adityanath s home turf. Senior BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh JPS Rathore said: In this Rajya Sabha election one candidate needs 37 first preference votes to sail through and emerge victorious. Arithmatically the BJP is easily winning eight out of 10 seats. On the ninth seat there could be some sangharsh (contest). At present we have 28 additional votes Rathore added. In the 245-member upper house of Parliament Uttar Pradesh has 31 seats being the most populous state of India. Nine of them are due to fall vacant in April. The seats are represented by Naresh Agarwal Jaya Bachchan Kiranmay Nanda Chaudhary Munwar Saleem Alok Tiwari and Darshan Singh Yadav (all SP) Munquad Ali (BSP) Pramod Tiwari (Congress) and Vinay Katiyar (BJP). Their term ends on April 2. Apart from this election is likely to be held for the 10th Rajya Sabha seat which fell vacant following Mayawati s resignation. She resigned on July 20 2017 nine months before her term was to expire alleging that her voice was being muzzled. With the BJP and its allies storming to power in Uttar Pradesh after the 2017 assembly elections the saffron party is set to wrest a lion s share of these seats in the Council of States as the Rajya Sabha is known. In the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly the BJP and its allies have 324 seats (BJP s Noorpur MLA died in a road accident in February) followed by the Samajwadi Party - 47 MLAs the BSP - 19 the Congress - seven and the RLD one. During the previous biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha two years ago the SP managed to win six seats by virtue of its strength in the assembly whose members vote in the indirect polling. Confident that the BJP can easily win the Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh ally http://pagebin.com/LdHH8MWx Apna Dal (Sonelal) leader Arvind Sharma said: Once UP sends new representatives to the Rajya Sabha the BJP-led NDA government will be in a better position in the upper house of Parliament where key bills get stuck in the absence of majority (for the ruling party). Mayawati has also said that the BSP has not fielded any candidate from Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seats but this does not mean party workers will not cast their votes. They will in fact exercise their voting rights appropriately. As per my earlier directives the BSP workers will vote for a candidate who will be in a position to defeat the BJP and there is nothing wrong in it. She said if the BSP votes for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh then the Congress can send one (of its party worker to) Rajya Sabha. If the Congress wants to ensure an easy win for its candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh then the seven Congress MLAs (in UP) should cast their vote (for the BSP in Rajya Sabha polls) after showing them to the BSP agent. But UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi claimed that the BJP will register easy wins and there s no doubt about it. In fact the BSP is confused... Both SP and BSP are in a state of gloom and are fighting for their existence. He added the Congress too is in shock as the BSP has decided to support the SP instead of helping the Congress.

Modi's projects that tilted the northeast states towards BJP

NEW DELHI: The stellar performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent state elections in Tripura Nagaland and Meghalaya is a landmark for a party which had little traction in the region except in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The party never had any significant connect with the masses and was seen as an outsider. What changed the situation? BJP president Amit Shah in his first press conference after the results credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi s Act East policy for the upsurge in fortunes. Modi s Act East policy included a big push for road and railway infrastructure and various steps to boost the regional economy. While most of the infrastructural projects are at various stages of completion Modi s northeast agenda created a rhetoric of http://www.iamsport.org/pg/profile/kfrechargeinclusiveness that helped bring the masses closer to the BJP. Below are a few important initiatives by the Modi government that may have made the BJP acceptable to the northeast voters: The railways push Before a metre-gauge line started in 2008 Tripura didn t have any railway link with the rest of the country. The Modi government converted it into broad gauge. All over the region the government has converted 900 km of tracks to broad gauge. It also launched a Rajdhani Express and the Tripura Sundari Express between Agartala and Delhi. In 2016 then railways minister Suresh Prabhu laid the foundation stone for the Rs 2 315 crore 88-km Dhansiri-Kohima railway track connecting Kohima to the national railway network. The government also began railway projects to connect Imphal Aizawl and Shillong. It has introduced more than two dozen new trains in the region. It also signed a deal with Bangladesh to develop a rail link between Tripura and Chittagong which would speed up flow of products especially grains to the region. Roads and highways Modi has branded his policy to build infrastructure in northeast as Transformation by Transportation . Lack of connectivity has been a major roadblock in the economic progress on the region. Modi s promise of connectivity resonates with the masses. More than 3 800 km of national highways with an investment of Rs. 32 000 crore have been sanctioned in the region in the past three years while nearly 1 200 km of roads have been constructed according to the government. In a public announcement in December last year Modi said the centre would invest another Rs. 60 000 crore under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in the northeast and Rs. 30 000 crore under the Bharatmala project over three years. Modi also dedicated to the nation a 271-km two-lane national highway connecting Tura in western Meghalaya to the state capital Shillong last year. Air connectivity The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has allocated Rs 3 400 crore for the upgradation of airports in the North East region. According to the government projects worth Rs 934 crore have already been completed while the rest would be over in the next two or three years. The aviation projects in the northeast include re-carpeting of the runway at Silchar and Lilabari airport and an aviation manpower training institute; development of Rupsi airport; a new integrated airport and an engineering workshop at Agartala; expansion and revamp of existing terminal building and runway at Dimapur; installation of an instrument landing system (ILS) at the Shillong airport; and operationalisation and development of the Tura airport. Other projects and policies Last year Modi dedicated the 60-MW Tuirial hydropower power project which made Mizoram the third power-surplus state in the northeast to Sikkim and Tripura. The project is expected to produce 251 million units of electricity annually. Announced in 1998 by the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government it was the first major central government project to be successfully commissioned in Mizoram. Recently the government decided to fully fund various Central projects being implemented in the northeast instead of the previous practice of sharing 90 per cent of the cost. The Modi government has also made the 1360-km long India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway which is to be completed in 2020 a centerpiece of its Act East policy. Opening the northeast to the ASEAN countries the highway will boost the regional economy. In Budget 2018-19 the government re-classified bamboo from tree to grass which would enable easier cultivation for commercial purposes. Bamboo is central to the rural economy of the northeast. Its classification as tree meant various restrictions on its produce transport and sale.
Hours after a BJP office in Tamil Nadu was attacked party National Secretary H. Raja on Wednesday expressed regret for his Facebook post that said statues of rationalist movement founder E.V.Ramasamy or Periyar would be razed to the ground in the state. Early on Wednesday a petrol bomb was hurled at a BJP office around 500 km from here in Coimbatore by unidentified persons. Later in a fresh Facebook post on Wednesday Raja expressed his heartfelt regret for his Tuesday s post which he claimed was a message posted by his social media administrator without his permission and hence he had removed it. Raja expressed regret if his post had hurt anybody s feelings. According to him damaging the statues of Ramasamy is not agreeable. The message that was posted and later removed said: Who is Lenin? What is the connection between him (Lenin) and India? What connection between communism and India? Lenin s statue was broken down in Tripura. Today it is Lenin s statue in Tripura and tomorrow it will be the statue of caste fanatic E.V.Ramasamy. Late on Tuesday two persons were arrested in Thirupattur in Vellore district for vandalising Ramasamy s statue. The attackers at the BJP s office in Coimbatore had come in a three wheeler and had thrown the petrol bomb inside the office. Police are investigating the case.
The Big Story: Statutory warningsAfter a number of statues were vandalised this week starting with Lenin in Tripura where the Bharatiya Janata Party just scored a big electoral victory the Central leadership was firm in its response. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the statue toppling spree warning of stern action . Party president Amit Shah also said he had spoken to the state units in Tamil Nadu and Tripura and that any person associated with the BJP involved in destroying statues would face severe action . Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called the Tripura governor and senior police officials asking them to maintain order till the new government was sworn in. As more statues were defaced in Tripura the Centre asked states to investigate attacks. The vandalisation had travelled from Tripura to Tamil Nadu and then to West Bengal where a bust of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee was blackened in alleged retaliation by Left supporters. So it was commendable that the top leadership stepped in made strong statements and took measures to keep the trouble from spreading. It appears however that the party has not lost its old habit of speaking in mixed voices. Earlier BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav had tweeted appreciatively about the statue toppling in Tripura though he later deleted the tweet. Tripura governor Tathagata Roy who seems to make no secret of his saffron loyalties continues to cheer on the statue toppling. Tamil Nadu BJP leader H Raja s Facebook post seemed to incite the vandalisation of Periyar statues in the state though he also took it down later. In spite of the stern warnings of the prime minister and party president no action will be taken against him. But the BJP has a history of double speak. After the Dadri lynching of 2015 for instance when a man was murdered for allegedly eating beef the party s top leadership had kept silent for months. While one leader at the Centre condemned it another tried to call the brutal crime a misunderstanding or an accident . All the time BJP state-level leaders and workers spewed hate and cheered on the guilty. It had taken quite a while for the prime minister to speak then. Indeed the party top brass s prompt and unequivocal response now is in striking contrast to its reticence on lynchings and attacks by cow vigilantes where human lives were at stake. Modi took more than a week to break his silence on Dadri and even then it was an oblique reference at a political rally rather than a direct condemnation. On cow vigilantes he first said 80% were fake implying that some were genuine and legitimate. It was almost two years after the Dadri lynching that he said killing in the name of the cow was unacceptable. It has been argued that the BJP moved swiftly now to protect its own interests. In Tripura where it had claimed victory over the politics of violence statue toppling did not sit well. In Tamil Nadu where the party is trying to expand its base and reach out to backward communities attacks on Periyar considered founder of the Dravidian Self-Respect Movement could only damage the BJP s image. Political parties will of course act to protect their interests. But an elected government which is responsible for the security of all citizens not merely those who vote for it should perhaps be less selective. As it asks affected states to investigate vandalisations could the Centre also ask others to speed up justice in the lynching cases?The Big ScrollRohan venkataramakrishnan asks whether a toppled statue and warnings to the Supreme Court make acche din.Ipsita Chakravarty reminds that statue toppling is not a democratic sport.Vinita Govinfarajan explains the BJP s animosity towards Periyar and his statues.Punditry1. In the Indian Express Christophe Jaffrelot writes that Karnataka offers an alternative trajectory based on growth and the closing of social religious gaps.2. In the Hindu Gopalkrishna Gandhi warns against Operation Dhakka .3. In the Economic Times TK Arun writes on the lessons these North East elections hold for political parties.GigglesLenin 2.0. # cartoon @timesofindia ##Lenin #TripuraViolence pic.twitter.com/QlXimbAZQD Sandeep Adhwaryu (@CartoonistSan) March 7 2018 Don t miss...Sahana Ghosh writes on the alarming levels of pangolin poaching in India and the urgent need to study the species:Dubbing the number of pangolins illegally traded in India as alarming experts say the estimated total of 5 772 animals is likely to be an underestimate as only a fraction of illegal wildlife trade is detected and the actual number is likely to be far higher.Pangolins commonly referred to as scaly anteaters are reported to be among the most trafficked wildlife species globally the report emphasises. The mammals are mostly poached for their meat and scales.
ALSO READ TN minister condemns BJP leader s Periyar remarks BJP s Raja invites ire of TN parties for social media post TN incubation ground of terror activities: BJP Kamal s political entry will not impact us: Panneeerselvam TN BJP sacks functionary for vandalising Periyar statue span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tamil Nadu president Tamilisai Soundararajan expelled R Muthuraman party functionary on Wednesday.Muthuraman was arrested for vandalising the statue of social reformer Periyar (EV Ramasamy) at Thirupathur in Vellore district. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also strongly disapproved incidents of vandalism reported from several parts of the country.Meanwhile Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) working President MK Stalin also demanded the arrest of H Raja following his now deleted controversial post on Facebook in which the latter had written that the statue of Periyar would be razed just like Vladimir Lenin s statue in Tripura.The post read Who is Lenin and what is the connection between Lenin and India? What connection has India with Communists? Lenin s statue has been removed in Tripura. Today it is Lenin s statue in http://www.betternetworker.com/members/kfckk Tripura tomorrow it will be the statue of caste fanatic EVR Ramasamy. Raja however apologised for the same by saying that the post was done by one of the administrators of his page without his permission.(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On 6 March just days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in the Tripura state Assembly elections a mob of saffron party workers bulldozed a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Belonia. The celebratory act was undertaken with much fervor to mark the right-wing party s decisive victory over the 25 years-long left-wing government in the state led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). BJP workers shout victory slogans during Vijay rally to celebrate their party s success in North East Assembly elections outside state party headquarter in Kolkata on Sunday. PTI Within India s postcolonial polity the dismantling of the statue in Belonia was a public spectacle unlike any other. Not that statues of political leaders haven t been vandalised in the past but such festive destructions in the wake of a sweeping election victory have been rare. Not many mainstream political parties have dared to ride majority public mandates to swiftly vandalise statues. It is not hard to comprehend the motivation behind Lenin s Tripura fall: the BJP s foot soldiers rode the victory wave to do what they ve probably been wanting to do since the very idea of re-capturing Tripura from the communists took shape in the party s high command i.e. raze CPM s legacy to the ground and start afresh. A standard part of this design is to erase public memory of Tripura s Communist past and statues are a convenient place to start. What more Lenin s controversial (and somewhat disturbing) political legacy makes him the perfect game meat. In an objective sense the Belonia destruction represents an all-too-familiar project of political iconoclasm. History is replete with ample instances of legacy destructions across the board: from Bamiyan to Kiev. These were often done in contravention of the law straddling the broader framework of resistance politics. After all in a democracy erecting a certain statue is as legitimate or illegitimate as bringing it down. Toppling statues kicking police barricades: no big deal in the restive milieu of democratic struggles. As American journalist and current dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Steve Coll wrote last year in an article on New Delhi s attempts to reconcile with colonial stone relics: One difference between democracies and dictatorships is that the constructing and revising of public spaces is not a propaganda opportunity for the ruler but a realm of democratic discourse influenced by popular opinion and competitive electoral politics. But history cannot be a veneer on political disruptions when it comes to partisan offensives. It is imperative to call out the Belonia act for what it was: violent. It is also important to note what the BJP did and did not do. The BJP did destroy the statue. The BJP did not relocate it out of public view when it had the option of doing so. Thus Lenin s nth fall in a far-flung corner of India had a peculiar tenor to it. The statue was bulldozed not in active resistance like in the cases of American Confederate statues being brought down to protest against Trump s racism but as an aggressive mark of all-encompassing victory. BJP did not need to bring Lenin down - they had already won the popular mandate. In that sense Belonia 2018 mirrors Baghdad 2003 where US forces brought down Saddam Hussein s statue simply to mark a wildly successful invasion and usher in a new era. The parallel drawn here isn t really between Lenin and Saddam (that s for the jury to decide) but between the aggressor s warlike pathologies. The critical difference here though is that while Baghdad 2003 happened in the thick of a full-blown military invasion Belonia 2003 unraveled in the immediate aftermath of a free fair and peaceful election. Herein lies the menacing quality of Lenin s Tripura fall. By exploiting a decisive public mandate to bulldoze a statue the BJP has only made a complete mockery of the very ethos of electoral democracy. Its leaders would do well to note that poll victories in a democracy are not free passes to take unilateral action especially when that action directly impacts a publicly-owned space. Any belief otherwise is taking the electorate for granted. If the BJP does actually believe that the Tripura victory carries a de facto public tender to destroy statues then it might want to wash the murk off its eyes. Communism did not come to the state just the other day: it was the political status quo for 25 long years a large part of which saw socio-economic stability and peace. To tinker with this entrenched legacy in a particularly dramatic fashion would be to push the fresh election mandate over the edge. The BJP should also remember that the quest to erase history is a futile one and more often than not an endeavour at self-destruction. A better template for revisionist politics something that the saffronites seem to be doping on at the moment is to permit problematic relics to remain as they are and contextualise them within democratic values of debate and dissent. On this the Director of the Smithsonian s National Museum of African American History and Culture Lonnie G. Bunch III offers a blunt take: I am loath to erase history. For me it s less about whether they statues come down or not and more about what the debate is stimulating. Fact remains that the BJP s bulldozing of Lenin s statue will go down as the party s reckless attempt to violently insert itself into Tripura s rich history. Not unlike the destruction of the Babri Masjid by Karsevaks in 1992 the Belonia bulldozing will also go down as a patent marker of right-wing exclusionist politics in this country which banks upon total homogenisation of political belief systems to ensure its own survival. The author is researcher and coordinator South East Asia Research Programme at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.
Yelahanka was a reserved constituency for Scheduled Castes until the 2004 Assembly elections it became a general constituency after delimitation. It is one of the smallest Assembly constituencies in Bengaluru with 3.73 lakh voters. It s also a bustling town due to its proximity to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA). The suburb likely to witness a direct contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. Both parties have consistently polled 30% to 40% of votes while the JD (S) has been in a distant third place except in the 2013 when Congress rebel B. Chandrappa contested on a JD(S) ticket and lost. He has since returned to the Congress. Though the Congress has the record of winning six of the last ten assembly elections from here Yelahanka was won by the BJP in the last two Assembly elections (since delimitation). BJP s SR Vishwanath won by a margin of 16 000 votes against Congress candidate B Chandrappa in 2008. Even when the tide was against BJP in the 2013 elections Vishwanath won by 18 000 votes. While BJP is sure to field him this time as well the Congress has a problem of plenty with at least 18 aspirants some of who have already started door-to-door campaigns. While it will be an uphill task for the Congress the BJP has the added advantage of having three sitting city corporators (out of four) from the party. The Kempegowda Atturu and Yelahanka Satellite Town Wards are represented by BJP corporators.The Congress is likely to field a candidate from the Vokkaliga community due as the caste-group has a majority in the constituency. M Rajkumar President of the Bengaluru North District Congress Committee said We have 100% hope. The BJP MLA is not accessible to people and does not have a good image he said.
Kolkata: Urging all regional parties to join hands to defeat the BJP in the 2019 general elections West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday warned the saffron brigade that for them alarm bells have already started ringing. All regional parties should join hands to defeat the BJP in 2019 (Lok Sabha poll) Ms Banerjee said at a rally organised by the Trinamool Congress on the International Women s Day.Ridiculing Bharatiya Janata Party s target of unseating the Trinamool to capture power in Bengal Ms Banerjee said it would remain a dream .Referring to the Telugu Desam party quitting Narendra Modi s government Ms Banerjee asked the BJP whether it could hear the sound of revolt. Are you (BJP) not able to hear the sound of revolt from various parts of the country? Are you not able to read the results in Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat? The TDP has walked out she said.Decrying the centre s failure to give a special category status to Andhra Pradesh the TDP has quit the Modi government with its Ministers P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju (Civil Aviation) and Y.S. Chowdary (Science and Technology) submitting their resignations. CommentsMs Banerjee predicted the BJP s defeat next year and asked it to introspect whether it was in a position to retain power at the Centre. Stop dreaming about coming to power in Bengal look at yourselves and see whether you are in a position to retain power at the centre the Chief Minister said.
Kolkata: Urging all regional parties to join hands to defeat the BJP in the 2019 general elections West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday warned the saffron brigade that for them alarm bells have already started ringing. All regional parties should join hands to defeat the BJP in 2019 (Lok Sabha poll) Banerjee said at a rally organised by the Trinamool Congress on the International Women s Day. File image of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI Ridiculing Bharatiya Janata Party s target of unseating the Trinamool to capture power in Bengal Banerjee said it would remain a dream . Refering to the https://snupps.com/kkclear Telugu Desam Party quitting Narendra Modi s government Banerjee asked the BJP whether it could hear the sound of revolt. Are you (BJP) not able to hear the sound of revolt from various parts of the country? Are you not able to read the results in Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat? The TDP has walked out she said. Decrying the centre s failure to give a special category status to Andhra Pradesh the TDP has quit the Modi government with its ministers P Ashok Gajapathi Raju (Civil Aviation) and YS Chowdary (Science and Technology) submitting their resignations. Banerjee predicted the BJP s defeat next year and asked it to introspect whether it was in a position to retain power at the Centre. Stop dreaming about coming to power in Bengal look at yourselves and see whether you are in a position to retain power at the centre the chief minister said.

Landmark ruling: Supreme Court says passive euthanasia is permissible

The Supreme Court has given legal sanction to passive euthanasia in a landmark verdict permitting living will by patients on withdrawing medical support if they slip into irreversible coma. The top court said that directions and guidelines laid down by it and its directive shall remain in force till a legislation is brought on the issue. The CJI while reading out the judgment said that though there were four separate opinions of the bench but all the judges were unanimous that the living will should be permitted since a person cannot be allowed to continue suffering in a comatose state when he or she doesn t wish to live https://www.diigo.com/item/note/6dj09/d35b?k=9cb707806520796d5a562eeb142e2d73. The top court had in 2011 recognised passive euthanasia in Aruna Shanbaug case by which it had permitted withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from patients not in a position to make an informed decision. What is Passive euthanasia? Passive euthanasia is a condition where there is withdrawal of medical treatment with the deliberate intention to hasten the death of a terminally-ill patient. What is the ruling all about?The ruling stems from a petition filed by an NGO Common Cause who had approached the court seeking a direction for recognition of living will and contended that when a medical expert said that a person afflicted with terminal disease had reached a point of no return then she should be given the right to refuse being put on life support. How can a person be told that he/she does not have right to prevent torture on his body? Right to life includes right to die with dignity. A person cannot be forced to live on support of ventilator. Keeping a patient alive by artificial means against his/her wishes is an assault on his/her body the petition said. The Centre however had told the court that the government had in principle decided to decriminalise attempt to suicide which at present is an offence punishable by up to one year jail term under Section 309 of Indian Penal Code. What is a living will? A living will is a written document by way of which a patient can give his explicit instructions in advance about the medical treatment to be administered when he or she is terminally ill or no longer able to express informed consent. Passive euthanasia meanwhile is a condition where there is withdrawal of medical treatment with the deliberate intention to hasten the death of a terminally-ill patient. In 2011 the top court had recognised passive euthanasia in Aruna Shanbaug s case by which it had permitted withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from patients not in a position to make an informed decision. The Centre had opposed recognition of living will and said the consent for removal of artificial support system given by a patient may not be an informed one and without being aware of medical advancements. It had cited examples of various countries in disallowing creation of living will by patients. Chronology of events that led to SC recognising living will May 11 2005: SC takes note of PIL of NGO Common Cause seeking nod to allow terminally-ill persons to execute a living will for passive euthanasia. It seeks the Centre s response on the plea which seeks declaration of right to die with dignity as a Fundamental Right under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution. Jan 16 2006: SC allows Delhi Medical Council (DMC) to intervene and asks it to file documents on passive euthanasia. Apr 28: Law Commission suggests a draft bill on passive euthanasia and says such pleas be made to HCs which should decide after taking experts views. Jan 31 2007: SC asks parties to file documents. Mar 7 2011: SC on a separate plea on behalf of Aruna Shanbaug allows passive euthanasia for the nurse lying in vegetative state at a hospital in Mumbai. Jan 23 2014: A three-judge bench led by then CJI P Sathasivam starts final hearing in the case. Feb 11: DMC files copy of proceedings of International Workshop for Policy Statement on Euthanasia in India and SC reserves verdict. Feb 25: SC cites inconsistencies in earlier verdicts on passive euthanasia including the one given in the Shanbaug case and refers the PIL to a Constitution bench. July 15: A five-judge bench commences hearing on the plea issues notices to all states and UTs and appoints senior advocate T R Andhyarujina as an amicus curiae. He dies during the pendency of the case. Feb 15 2016: Centre says that it is deliberating the issue. Oct 11 2017: Five-judge Constitution bench led by CJI Dipak Misra hears arguments and reserves the verdict. March 9 2018: SC recognises living will made by terminally-ill patients for passive euthanasia and lays down guidelines on procedures to be adopted for it.
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed passive euthanasia or withholding medical treatment to allow a terminally ill patient to die. The court said human beings have the right to die with dignity ANI reported. The five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said passive euthanasia is permissible with guidelines. The bench said life support can be withdrawn only after a statutory medical board declares a patient incurable. The top court also sanctioned living wills documents by which patients tell doctors what kind of medical treatment they would like in case of a serious illness. It issued guidelines to govern the execution of a living will and administering passive euthanasia in the absence of living wills.A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra passed the order allowing passive #Euthanasia with guidelines ANI (@ANI) March 9 2018 The court was hearing a petition filed by the NGO Common Cause which sought direction to recognise living wills. The petition contended that when a medical expert says that a person with a terminal disease was not curable the patient should be given the right to refuse being put on life support.The petitioner had argued that the right to die peacefully and with dignity is part of the Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.During a hearing in October 2017 the Centre had argued against allowing living wills on the grounds that they could be misused. The government only conceded that such documents may be one of many factors that a board of doctors might consider in allowing passive euthanasia. Euthanasia may be active or passive. Active euthanasia involves giving a person a lethal substance to help end his or her life. It is illegal in India and amounts to murder.
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The Maharashtra government argued against the Supreme Court ordering a probe into the death of judge BH Loya who was dealing with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case saying it would destroy the credibility of the judiciary forever. Is the judiciary in such a sad state that it dances to one man? Then we might as well wind it up senior advocate Harish Salve told a three-judge bench led by CJI Dipak Misra. Scurrilous allegations have been made against several judges including a former CJI of the Madras high court in this context he argued. Should the court order a probe the judges will be examined as co-conspirators in a murder. Are they conspirators in a murder? Is it conceivable that one politician is doing all these things? If the court were to order a probe they will be questioned for murder. The system will be condemned forever. BJP chief Amit Shah was an accused in the case. He was discharged by Loya s successor. The CBI is yet to file an appeal against the discharge. The ongoing trial in the case has fallen through with several witnesses turning hostile.
The Supreme Court has set to rest the controversy surrounding the marriage of Akhila alias Hadiya to Shefin Jehan but its nod to National Investigation Agency (NIA) to continue its probe into the alleged links of the Muslim youth with extremist outfits will keep alive the debate on love jihad triggered by the inter-faith marriage. Hindu organisations have cited the apex court decision on 8 March to keep the investigation open as a clear admission of the existence of love jihad in Kerala. They had coined the term to describe several cases of conversion of non-Muslims to Islam in the 1990s.File image of Hadiya. Reuters The Hindu bodies had claimed that love jihad was part of a well-organised racket that hires young Muslim men to lure Hindu girls by feigning love for the purpose of conversion. It assumed the jihadi dimension after five neo-converts landed in IS territory on the Afghan-Syria border in October 2016. The issue triggered communal frenzy after the Sangh Parivar took it up. Even though the campaign spearheaded by the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) combine was dismissed as part of their political strategy to create a communal division in the state a recent case involving a 25-year-old woman hailing from Pathanamthitta district and settled in Gujarat has forced a rethinking in political circles. The woman alleged that a Muslim youth from Kannur who tricked her into marriage had tried to take her to Syria from Saudi Arabia. She had met the man identified as Mohammed Riyas while studying in Bengaluru in 2014. Riyaz who is an active member of Popular Front of India (PFI) a fundamentalist outfit carrying out conversions in Kerala had taken her forcibly to Saudi Arabia using forged documents. The woman said she was locked up in a room when she resisted his plans to take her to Syria. She was rescued with the help of some NRIs after she managed to contact her parents back home. The high court has referred the case to the NIA for investigation. Two persons who facilitated the marriage have been arrested in connection with the incident. The NIA is already investigating the migration of 21 youths from the northern districts of Kasargod and Palakkad to the Afghan-Syrian border in July 2016. They included one Hindu and four Christians who were converted to Islam. The anti-terrorist probe agency has already booked 16 persons in connection with the alleged IS recruitment and the trial in the first case involving 15 persons from Kasargod has already begun in the NIA court at Kochi. The main accused in the case are Abdul Abdulla Rashid and Yasmeen Mohammed Zahid of Bihar. The chargesheet filed in January 2017 named Rashid as the main conspirator who motivated a number of youths from Kasaragod to join the Islamic State along with their families. It said that Abdulla had raised funds from abroad and transferred the money to Yasmeen who used it for propagating the ideology of violent jihad. The Kerala High Court had ordered a police investigation into the Hadiya case after Shefin informed the court on 21 December 2016 that he intended to take his wife to Muscat where he worked. Hadiya s father KM Ashokan had earlier expressed suspicion that Shefin had married his daughter for the purpose of taking her to the IS camp in Syria. In its interim report on 6 January 2017 Kerala Police said that Shefin was an active member of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) the political arm of PFI and was one among 35-40 administrators of the party s Facebook page along with Manseed Buraq who was earlier arrested in a case connecting him with IS. The police informed the court that Jahan was also an accused in two police cases including a case related to a political clash. Shefin did not hide his involvement with SDPI in the counter affidavit he filed in the high court but denied any connection with Manseed Buag who was expelled from SDPI after his link with IS was exposed. The NIA was handed over the probe into the Hadiya case by Supreme Court after Shefin approached it in August 2017 with a plea to quash the 24 May high court verdict annulling his marriage to Hadiya. The findings of the agency submitted to the apex court in a sealed cover are not known. However Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh appearing for the agency informed the apex court that NIA s investigation had revealed a strong pattern of Hindu women being systematically indoctrinated and induced into conversion and marriage by radical outfits. The agency suspected external forces behind Hadiya s conversion into Islam since her mentor was found involved in other love jihad cases being investigated by it. The NIA had selected 32 out of 89 cases referred to it by the Kerala Police for detailed scrutiny. NIA s preliminary investigation revealed PFI women s wing chief Sainaba who mentored Hadiya as the common link in several cases. The agency found her involved in luring young Hindu girls into embracing Islam with the help of activists linked to Muslim outfits like PFI SDPI and Markazul Hidaya Sathyasarani. Shefin s counsel advocate Haris Beeran said the facts in the Hadiya case did not show any element of so-called love jihad since Hadiya had married Shefin much after she embraced Islam. She found him in a matrimonial site and married after due interactions. He told Firstpost whether there is anything incriminating against his client in the NIA probe will be known only after the court s full verdict will be available. The court had delivered only the operating part on Thursday. He said that the court may have taken the NIA probe findings into consideration while restoring the marriage of Hadiya and Shefin. Social activist Rahul Easwar who had interacted with Hadiya while she was in her parents custody also does not believe the involvement of love jihad in Hadiya s case. He doubts even any force behind the conversion. Rahul who is the grandson of Sabarimala hill shrine supreme priest told Firstpost that he found Hadiya to be a simple woman who had developed a genuine affinity towards Islam after her interactions with Muslim friends while studying. He also takes the Sangh Parivar propaganda about love jihad with a pinch of salt saying that they were blowing the issue out of proportion by citing a few isolated cases. However he finds substance in the allegation that there could be a force behind some conversions. Rahul is not ready to blame non-Hindus alone for this. Muslim and Christian organisations are able to attract Hindus into their faith because they are vulnerable to conversion. A large section in the Hindu community are disappointed with the neglect and discrimination they suffer. If the conversion lobby in other religion is able to lure them with better prospects they cannot be blamed he said. Social critic J Devika agrees with Rahul. She said most of the Hindus converts belonged to suppressed sections in the community. She told Scroll that the Hindu upper caste society still considered the lower Ezhava community with contempt in the state. Devika an associate professor at the Centre for Development Studies Thiruvananthapuram pointed out that Hadiya s parents belonged to Ezhava community that is officially categorised as Other Backward Classes while the family of another convert Athira is part of Scheduled Caste Vannan community. She believes that the Sangh Parivar has been running the love jihad propaganda to mask the caste divide in Hindu society. They have realised that this caste division in the Hindu society is hurting its political plans. Love jihad is their ploy to mask the caste division and reap electoral dividends in Kerala Devika said. BJP leaders say their campaign against love jihad was not aimed at maligning a particular community. Party spokesman JR Padmakumar said they have been airing their concern in the wake of arrest of several people in connection with the recruitment of youths to extremist outfits including IS in the recent past.
Written by Shaju Philip | Updated: August 27 2017 7:56 pm Hadiya Related News Mission Kerala on its mind BJP gears up for Chengannur bypollKerala govt asks authorities to stop human blood ritualKannur murder: Kerala HC orders CBI probe hours after CM Vijayan Pinarayi says not necessary Annulled by HC Shefin Jahan s marriage to a Hindu convert is being investigated by NIA. But Akhila s journey to become Hadiya began long before she met him. SHAJU PHILIP tells her story THE Kottayam house where lives the woman whose conversion to Islam is now the subject of a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has long battled matters of faith. The 24-year-old s father is a sworn atheist her mother a staunch Hindu. K M Akhila now Hadiya often found herself torn between the two. Confined in the three-room house at T V Puram for the past three months on court orders Hadiya has not been allowed to step out or meet anyone. Policemen watch her every move and monitor the neighbourhood. Her uncle Suresh Babu a local Congress leader says Despite several rounds of counselling Hadiya is sticking to her Islamic faith. Now she is asking her parents to embrace Islam. Akhila s aunt Ganga blames her parents Ashokan used to chide wife Ponnamma over her religious beliefs. The daughter was confused. In the only visual of Hadiya to emerge from inside in a controversial video made by an activist she can be seen standing in a doorway. She pleads Is this what my life would be like now? Akhila is the only daughter of K M Ashokan 56 a retired Armyman and Ponnamma. T V Puram in Kerala s Kottayam district is a quiet middle-class Hindu neighbourhood and Akhila studied at the Government Higher Secondary School here. Relatives say she struggled with studies as she entered her senior years. After clearing Class 12 in her second attempt she applied for admission to the private Sivaraj Homeopathy Medical College & Research Institute in Salem Tamil Nadu. Suresh Babu says he helped her get a seat through an agent . In August 2010 Akhila 18 boarded a train to Salem 400 km away. READ THE STORY IN MALAYALAM Of the 25 students in her course four were from Kerala. Akhila quickly bonded with the four Divya Archana Rajan Dilna and Jaseela Aboobacker as well as Jaseela s younger sister Faseena who had joined another course at the same institute. Six months later the six took up a house on rent together moving out of the hostel. This was the first time Akhila had had Muslim friends or Muslim acquaintances. Jaseela who is now a homeopathic doctor says Akhila would watch her and Faseena as they offered namaz five times a day. Akhila s interest surprised her she adds. We thought she was an atheist like her father. When our roommates went to a temple they would have to coerce Akhila to come along. Soon Akhila borrowed a Quran in Malayalam from Jaseela to read. She started posting verses from it on Facebook. She said it was better to be associated with a religion than be an atheist Jaseela says adding Akhila shared everything with her mother. Archana who was part of their group says one development proved crucial. Akhila failed in the first-semester exam. Heartbroken she wanted to quit the course. It was Jaseela who counselled Akhila to stay back. After that they grew even closer says Archana of Aryambavu in Palakkad. Akhila now started listening to Islamic sermons on her phone downloaded from the Internet. Soon she had questions about Islam that Jaseela and Faseena found difficult to answer. Hoping to clear her doubts Jaseela put Akhila in touch with her father Parayil Aboobacker. Aboobacker who runs a furniture business near Perinthalmanna admits he talked to her. In 2011 Akhila was home on leave during Ramzan and observed a fast. Later for Eid-ul-Fitr she joined Jaseela and Faseena at their home in Angadippuram in Malappuram with their other Hindu friends. Once Akhila disclosed her intention to convert. I told her her father is an atheist and her locality has no Muslims. I gave her Upanishads (from his house) to read. I urged her to finish her studies says Aboobacker who is in his 60s. Jaseela says they started getting worried when Akhila started posting questions on Islam on the Internet. One day when she posted on Facebook the verse Every soul shall taste death it got a like from a Kannur youth Shanib studying MBA in Bengaluru. He introduced her to his cousin Sherin Shahana whose husband Fazal Musthafa had pursued Islamic Studies in Yemen. The couple were at the time in Mangaluru where Musthafa worked at a mosque. As Akhila started communicating regularly with Shahana and Musthafa Jaseela says they warned her over such Facebook friendships. We told her about people on social media who have an agenda to trap Hindu women. But she ignored us. According to police and court documents Akhila told the couple about her desire to convert and that accordingly they came to Kochi on September 10 2015. Police say Akhila got an affidavit attested from an advocate in Kochi saying she was living as a Muslim without compulsion and wanted to take on the name Aasiya. While Akhila kept this conversion bid a secret relatives says Ponnamma knew of her daughter s growing leanings towards Islam. Matters came to a head in November 2015 when Akhila s grandfather died and she refused to join the 40th-day rituals. Says uncle Suresh Babu We thought she was menstruating. But she told us she was following Islam and could not do Hindu rituals. Later we heard she had brought Islamic literature home fasted and offered prayers five times a day. Babu says Akhila argued that Islam was a good religion compared to Hinduism. When we scolded her she urged her parents too to embrace Islam says her uncle. Ashokan and Ponnamma refuse to talk to the media. With her rift with them widening Akhila left home on January 1 2016 apparently to return to college in Salem. Instead she went to her friend s Malappuram home. Says Aboobacker Akhila was on her way to Mangaluru to Shahana and Musthafa. They wanted her to stop studying and end relations with her family. Jaseela told me if Akhila goes to Mangaluru we would not get her back. Hence she forced her to come to our house. Aboobacker says Akhila however stuck to her decision to convert and the next day (January 2) he took her to an advocate in Perinthalmanna. She again got an attested affidavit saying she was embracing Islam of her own will. On Akhila s insistence to learn more about Islam Aboobacker says he took her to two Islamic institutions in Kozhikode. Both refused to admit Akhila instantly and so they turned to Sathya Sarani the only institute in Kerala that offers a two-month residential programme for new converts to Islam. Sathya Sarani too reportedly refused to admit her for want of proper documents and Aboobacker brought Akhila back home. The next day he says they had a fight and he sent her back to the Salem college. An official at the Salem college refused to share any details. We can t help you. We have no clue about that student he said. Crime Branch Superintendent of Police K V Santhosh who headed the High Court-ordered probe into Akhila s conversion says the friendship with the Mangaluru couple didn t last long. Akhila did not like their extreme orthodoxy he says. The couple later moved to Saudi Arabia. Shefin Jahan and his wife When Akhila returned to college in Salem on January 6 2016 she wore a headscarf creating a stir. One of her classmates told her father and an anxious Ashokan started calling her. Akhila however refused to return home and instead again went to Jaseela s house. Says Aboobacker I informed Ashokan that his daughter wanted to convert. I told him I would accompany her home. He told me he would pick her up from my house. Before the father arrived though Sathya Sarani members reached Aboobacker s house to get her. The president of a women s group National Women s Front A S Zainaba also came reportedly at the behest of Sathya Sarani. But Aboobacker says he did not allow them to take Akhila. I asked Akhila to go to Salem. So when Ashokan came she was no longer there says Aboobacker. Ashokan registered a case at a local police station and also moved a habeas corpus petition in the high court. Aboobacker was arrested and jailed for two days. Later it was Zainaba who produced Akhila in the high court on January 19 2016. The court allowed Akhila to stay with Zainaba and also let her attend the Islamic course at Sathya Sarani. Zainaba who once worked with the Sathya Sarani says the institute had sought her help to ascertain Akhila s intentions. Akhila attended a course at Sathya Sarani and returned to Zainaba s house as Hadiya . Now Hadiya also started talking about marriage hoping to find some support system. At her behest I registered her name on a matrimonial website says Zainaba. A police officer says the marriage plans were the tipping point for Hadiya s father. He says Ashokan being an atheist was not as concerned about his daughter s conversion until then. The news of Kerala Muslims leaving to join the Islamic State along with their wives a few of them converts worried him. He told his daughter about his fears. Hadiya vowed she would not go anywhere. But on August 16 2016 Ashokan filed a writ petition in the high court alleging there was a move to take his daughter out of India. Police sources say Ashokan s fears are baseless merely the concerns of a father about losing his only child. Hadiya did not even have a passport points out an officer. In response to her father s plea Hadiya was produced before court on August 22. Again she refused to go with her parents and said she wanted to stay with Zainaba. However the court sent her to a hostel in Kochi. On September 29 at the next hearing she was allowed to return to Zainaba. Shefin Jahan a graduate in Islamic Studies and working as a manager with a firm in Muscat since January 2015 was also registered on the matrimonial website. Shefin s parents Shajahan and Rejila Beevi originally from Kollam settled in Muscat nearly a decade ago but his father recently set up a business in Tamil Nadu. His sister Shehla Jahan is a nurse in Muscat. Shefin came to Kerala in November 2016 on a two-month leave and planned to get married during that time. Since he has some links with the trust that runs Sathya Sarani the wedding with Hadiya was arranged quickly. On December 19 the two got married at Zainaba s house in Malappuram. The marriage was not fake Shefin stresses to charges that it was just a ploy to take Hadiya abroad. I invited Ashokan too he didn t turn up. My friends and relatives came. We registered the marriage at the local panchayat. Dy SP Perinthalmanna M P Mohanachandran who probed the case initially also found nothing suspicious in the marriage. It was an arranged marriage attended by the local masjid committee representatives. They invited over 50 people. They hoped that after the wedding Hadiya could be produced in court by her own husband instead of Zainaba he says. SP Santhosh says they found no criminal cases against Shefin but for one related to campus politics. We didn t find any suspicious money transactions either he adds. Shefin admits that while in college he was a member of the Campus Front the student outfit of the radical Muslim group Popular Front of India (PFI) and ran the Facebook page of the PFI s political arm SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India). One of the followers of that FB page Mancy Buraqui was arrested last year for suspected IS links. Shefin says Buraqui was removed from the page when this was revealed. The PFI has now engaged advocates to fight Shefin s case. Accusing police of trying to depict him as a terrorist he says Last month I got a letter from the regional passport office asking why I had suppressed four criminal cases against me. But I only had one criminal case relating to a political clash on campus. On December 21 two days after their wedding Hadiya returned to court with Shefin. But the court sent Hadiya to the hostel again and ordered Shefin not to have any contact with her. They weren t allowed to talk at subsequent hearings either. Then on May 24 2017 the high court nullified the marriage. Ordering a probe it said A girl aged 24 is weak and vulnerable capable of being exploited in many ways. The Markazul Hidaya of Manjeri in Malappuram district is better known as Sathya Sarani. It is the only institute in Kerala that offers a two-month residential programme for new converts to Islam At the same time police officers understand where fears such as these spring from. Conversion efforts in Kerala are under investigation particularly in the light of youth joining IS. There are some who consider men marrying into another community heroes says an officer adding that often their hands are tied as the two parties are adults. Another officer associated with the case says Helping a convert is seen as an act that will pave the way to heaven. So an aspirant for Islam sees a battery of supporters. Muhammed Roshan a researcher on the Sociology of Religion at IIT-Madras points out that conversions to Islam in India have largely happened through social interactions. Unlike the Christian missionary movements messages of Islam have transferred through interactions with Muslims at social settings As this happened gradually it never disturbed the social eco-system he says adding that what has changed is emergence of Dammaj Salafi groups in Kerala as opposed to Sufi who believe in puritan Islam. Hindu activist Rahul Easwar who met Hadiya and her parents recently and released photos and a video that the family has objected to says both Hindu and Muslim groups are trying to cash in on the controversy. Easwar who has expressed dismay at Hadiya being kept in State confinement adds that it is difficult to demarcate between conversion and forced conversion and that there is no doubt that a concerted lobby is behind conversion. However Easwar who belongs to the family of Sabarimala priests says the reason why Hindus are getting attracted to Islam is the spiritual vacuum in the Hindu community. Hadiya he says felt a lack of belonging in the Hindu community . It s here that organisations like the Kochi-based Arsha Vidya Samajam step in. Started in 1999 K R Manoj the head of the institution is leading a movement to reconvert youth mostly Hindu women back to the religion. Earlier this year he says some of his volunteers had visited Hadiya at her parents request to counsel her to give up Islam. However he says Hadiya was one of the few projects we failed she was very arrogant and adamant during the counselling sessions . Since 2009 we have reconverted some 3 000 youth mostly young women to Hindusim he says. While most of these cases were of Hindu-Muslim conversions about 300 were of Hindu women who had converted to Christianity he says. Amidst the charges of forced conversion in the Hadiya case stands Markazul Hidaya of Manjeri in Malappuram district better known as Sathya Sarani. It is run by a trust that has leaders of the PFI among its members. In July 2010 then Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan had accused the PFI charged in many violent attacks of promoting Islamisation of Kerala . Manager Muhammed Rafi says no conversions happen at the institute only religious teaching. We don t convert anyone contrary to public perception. There is nothing mysterious here he says. When a new convert approaches the institute Rafi adds their antecedents are checked. Besides they have to furnish an affidavit attested by a notary that they have embraced Islam of their own free will. The manager also points out that police keep a close watch on the institute s functioning and frequently visit it to check up on missing women . Whenever anyone is tracked to our institute we duly produce them before police. Police sources say that during a recent inspection 52 inmates were found at the institute. Of them 28 were Hindu converts 16 Christian converts and eight Muslims. According to the institute last year 447 people attended courses at the college. This year the figure stands at 264 so far. Parayil Aboobacker the father of Hadiya s friends Jaseela and Faseena In a petition filed by Shefin challenging the high court verdict the Supreme Court last week ordered an NIA probe under the supervision of retired judge R V Raveendran. It agreed with the NIA contention that the Hadiya case did not appear to be an isolated one and compared it to the Blue Whale Challenge. It s been eight months now that he talked to his wife Shefin says. She has been produced before the court several times since but I was not allowed to speak to her. Her family and police don t let me meet her and she doesn t have a phone says Shefin who is staying in Chandanathopu 12 km from Kollam with an uncle. Forced to stay back he has lost his job in Muscat. SP Santhosh wonders what a new investigation would find. Our probe didn t find anything to make out a case against anyone At no stage is there evidence of coercion he says. The officer adds Hadiya gave several statements that she became a Muslim on her own. As long as she sticks to that no case can be framed Now let the NIA probe. But Shefin hasn t lost hope he says. He shows a recent message Hadiya sent to his phone from her mother s mobile. It reads Help me hadiya@akhila. Timeline: August 2010: Akhila leaves home to join a homeopathy medical college in Salem Tamil Nadu; becomes friends with two Muslim sisters September 10 2015: Akhila makes first attempt to convert gets an affidavit attested from an advocate in Kochi saying she was living as a Muslim without anyone s compulsion and wanted to take on the name Aasiya November 2015: Refuses to join Hindu rituals at home on death of her grandfather January 1 2016: Leaves home for college but instead goes to Jaseena and sister Faseela s home in Malappuram January 2: At her insistence says Jaseena s father P Aboobacker he takes her to an advocate where she registers an affidavit saying she was embracing Islam of her own will January 5: Aboobacker who says he tried to dissuade her refuses to help Akhila further sends her back to college January 6: Akhila attends college in Islamic dress. Her family learns about it. She approaches Islamic learning centre Sathya Sarani January 8: shokan files case against Aboobacker January 11: Aboobacker is arrested and faces charges of fomenting communal enmity released after 2 days January 12: Ashokan moves the first habeas corpus in high court January 18: Akhila is produced before court refuses to go with parents January 21 to March 21: Akhila alias Hadiya stays at Sathya Sarani to learn about Islam August 17: Ashokan moves a fresh writ petition in high court alleging there is a move to take his daughter to Syria to fight for Islamic State August 22: Court sends Hadiya to a hostel in Kochi August 26: Hadiya gives an affidavit to court that she embraced Islam of her will December 19: Hadiya gets married to Shefin Jahan of Kollam December 21: HC criticises the marriage sends Hadiya back to hostel. Tells Jahan not to meet her May 24 2017: Kerala HC nullifies the marriage sends Hadiya back to her parents puts her under police surveillance August 16: On Jahan s appeal against HC order Supreme Court orders NIA probe With inputs from Arun Janardhanan For all the latest India News download Indian Express App More Related News Man taken into custody for making death threat to Kerala CM Malli s tragedy: On death loss and failed government schemes in Kerala s only tribal block Tags: Kerala CCongress The CorruptMar 9 2018 at 11:08 pmThe Supreme court judgment seems too naive. As everything in black and white. Tis lady on several occasions gave false information to courts . Secondly se was put into islamic matrimonials after indoctrisin her by a sady organisation which runs a racket for converting hindu girls. Also it as been proved now the Oman returned man did not selected the girl online...they were introduced by the same shady oranistion. And lastly the man who is associated with extremist organisation...suddenly found highly paid supreme court lawyers appearing for him. Who is paying their fees!(0)(0) Reply PPapaMar 8 2018 at 3:32 pmCongratulations ! May you have a prosperous journey ahead.(0)(1) ReplyUuriMar 9 2018 at 9:24 pmIslam is more popular as it is easy to understand and follow. Hinduism is complex and one needs to be mature to understand as Hinduism is against concepts like religion which petty minds cannot comprehend(0)(0) Reply IISLAMIC CONVERSION FACTORIESNov 28 2017 at 9:11 amISLAM CONVERSION FACTORIES----------------Search on UTUBE OPERATION JIHAD MAFIA by Aaj Tak and OPERATION CONVERSION FACTORY by India Today............and see urself how ORGANIZED conversion rackets are being run by islamic states in India.............Funding for these conversions and love jihad comes from Saudi Pakistan and underworld......... Underworld earns huge money through its agents in BOLLYWOOD and then route that money for conversions killing and love jihad in India.......Islamic organizations guide and teach muslims how to approach and target Hindu women they also provide them funds and training for this........by this method on one side we decrease Hindu population and on other side we increase our islamic population.......They say if we marry a Hindu woman we 1st convert that woman and after that all the childrens are also muslims....(3)(7) Reply RRam SekharNov 28 2017 at 12:08 amThis is not conversion. This is psychological grooming. Following are the steps involved: Steps 1 - 4 - GROOMING Girl has doubts about her own religion. Steps 5 - 6 - CONVERT Girl is now in deep emotional stress. Forced to defend her decision. Change in perspective strong. Steps 7 - 9 - END GAME Most girls picked are soft. So they accept their new fate with no questions. They now attack their previous religion. Society thinks they have always acted on her free will. 1) Identify soft individuals and be friends with them 2) Constantly tell about how their religion is bad and how ISS LaaM is the best 3) Scare them saying they are going to hell 4) Start taking them to Dawaa keeping it secret from Parents 5) Separate emotionally from Parents. Reduce trust in family 6) Convert in secrecy from parents 7) Scare saying if they go back they will go to hell. Threaten if needed. 8) Tell that parents family will ask them to leave ISS LaaM. 9) Turn them against parents(16)(2) Reply Shaju PulloorAug 28 2017 at 12:43 pmThe Quran provides an environment where people can fully enjoy freedom of thought and freedom of religion and allows people to live by the faith and values they believe in. According to Islam everyone has the right to live freely by his beliefs whatever they may be. Anyone who wants to support a church a synagogue or a mosque must be free to do so. In this sense freedom of religion or freedom of belief is one of the basic tenets of Islam. There is always freedom of religion wherever the moral values of the Qur an prevail. That is why Muslims also treat Jews and Christians described in the Qur an as the People of the Book with great justice love and compassion. God says in the Qur an: God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you in the religion or driven you from your homes or from being just towards them. God loves those who are just. (Surat al-Mumtahana 8)(11)(23) ReplyGGuest4321Nov 28 2017 at 7:54 amFirst and foremost Humanity and all religions say that we should not tell lies. your comment does not withstand that scrutiny. ISIS are representatives of Islam and we all know what they do. Muslims should start accepting that there is a problem in their belief and should work to eradicate those fundamentalist ideas. Sermons like above will only draw dis-belief from everyone when the reality is that most terrorists world wide are muslims.(8)(4) ReplyKkurtNov 28 2017 at 9:40 pmIs is do not represent Islam. Get the fact right. Rss. Baj rang Dallas. Shiv sena goons represent hindu for sure. People are not stupid enough to convert after all negativity spread about Islam by people like you. Yet the fastest growing religion by conversion. Facts are there you can t fool people.(4)(3)Ridhima TiwariDec 2 2017 at 10:02 pmhaha What a joke!(2)(0) ReplyRidhima TiwariDec 2 2017 at 10:02 pmHaha ! what a joke you just wrote here.(2)(0) ReplyUuriMar 9 2018 at 9:26 pmislam is for petty minds hinduism requires deep study which most people can t even after maturity(0)(0) Reply Load More Comments
New Delhi: The Supreme Court today took umbrage against a senior lawyer for casting aspersions on judges that they were only asking searching questions to those who brought the Judge BH Loya death case before it and not to the Maharashtra government.Disapproving such remarks a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said that judges were guided by their conscience and heart in delivering justice and they do not need any certificate from anyone. We will ask questions what we want to satisfy our conscience. We don t have to show a veneer of justice to you. Justice is in our hearts and minds. We don t want a certificate least of all from an arguing counsel the bench said.The strong remarks came when senior advocate Dushyant Dave said the court was not asking questions to another senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Maharashtra when he was arguing and he had to face all the queries.Justice Chandrachud replied that fortunately in our judicial system the judges have to agree with the lawyers and not vice versa . Unfortunately in our system you don t have to agree with us but we have to agree with you sometimes a person is so involved in the arguments that he forgets who is a judge and who is a lawyer he said.Senior advocate Dave replied that there are always two ways to look at something and one should stand for the cause.To this Justice Chandrachud said No leniency to justice is being imparted. Justice lies in our conscience. During the hearing the bench also clarified that it cannot direct the state to file affidavit and the documents once produced by the Maharashtra government can be equally good. We will not allow the state to correct the anomaly if any by way of affidavit. If there is anything wrong it will be dealt according to the law it said.Senior advocate Dave then said that he can t file contempt or seek perjury proceedings against the state as the documents are not filed on affidavit.The bench said that he (Dave) can still file contempt and seek initiation of perjury proceedings against the state in case of any false documents.While referring to Ravi Bhavan where judge Loya was staying the night before he died senior advocate Dave said that it was just at a five-minutes distance from the chief justice s bungalow and questioned why his car could not be called to take him to the hospital. If the chief justice cannot take care of his judiciary then he is not fit to be chief justice the senior advocate said.This statement led to heated exchange between senior advocates Dave and Rohatgi who objected to the statement of the former saying he cannot accuse everybody. This case is mala fide based on an article in media. The article was a case of yellow journalism. The article was never published for three years but once a petition challenging the discharge of accused in Sohrabuddin Sheikh case was dismissed by the apex court the article surfaces senior advocate Rohatgi said.Senior advocate Dave questioned why did the CBI then not file the appeal against the discharge of BJP president Amit Shah in the case.Senior advocate Rohatgi replied these are all absurd allegations and the CBI had filed the appeals against some of the accused in the case.Senior advocate Dave then moved on and argued that the report of intelligence commissioner has to be rejected and does not inspire confidence due to various anomaly.At the fag end of the hearing advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the Centre for Public Interest Litigation said two reports (histopathology and the ECG) of judge Loya were not filed by the State in the documents filed before the court.Advocate Bhushan said he had personally met many cardiologists who had seen these reports and had ruled out that judge Loya had died of a heart attack.He pointed out the expert opinion of Dr. Upendra Kaul former professor of cardiology at AIIMS and Padma Shri awardee who had virtually ruled out a heart attack as the cause of death on the basis of the histopathology and ECG reports.Advocate Bhushan further pointed out that the doctor at Dande Hospital and Meditrina Hospital in Nagpur had noted tall T-waves in the ECG in their statements filed with the State.The arguments remained inconclusive and would continue tomorrow.On March 5 the top court had said questions should not be raised over the change in the judge hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in Bombay High Court as the change in the roster was a routine affair which is in accordance with the established tradition there. CommentsJudge Loya who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1 2014 when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague s daughter.The bench is hearing batch of pleas including those filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala and Maharashtra-based BS Lone seeking an independent probe into judge Loya s death.
Written by Kaunain Sheriff M | New Delhi | Updated: March 9 2018 7:33 am CBI Judge B H Loya Taking a strong view of the petitioner s argument that it has not put forth questions to the state of Maharashtra in connection with the plea seeking an independent probe into the death of judge B H Loya the Supreme Court said that it will ask questions it wants and that justice lies in its conscience . The observations came after senior advocate Dushyant Dave counsel for Bombay https://wanelo.co/kkdigital Lawyers Association told the bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud that while the court has put many questions to him and also offered alternative possibilities it has not put forth such questions to senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi representing Maharashtra. It is a matter of great regret that the judiciary has unwittingly withdrawn. This report deserves to be thrown out in the dustbin. Your lordships should have been more harsher. There were no searching questions that were put to the state It troubles me that your lordships have put many questions and offered alternative possibilities during my arguments but have not put forth such questions to Rohatgi Dave said. To this Justice Chandrachud replied We will ask the questions we want. Justice lies in our conscience. We do not want a certificate from an arguing counsel. Concluding his argument Dave asked the bench as to why it has not issued notices to Maharashtra government which has filed the discreet inquiry report containing the testimonies of four lower court judges who accompanied judge Loya. This court has issued notices in the Sunanda Pushkar case to the police. That is also a case where the death occurred in unnatural circumstances But here your lordships have not issued any notices this report does not inspire confidence Dave argued. Justice Khanwilkar responded That case is different the police was already required to file a report several days before the said order but it had failed to do so. Justice Chandrachud said: The filing of affidavit can never improve the document or evidence Any order for further investigation that we may pass shall depend on the adequacy or inadequacy of the evidence the state has filed before this court. Dave asked In the absence of affidavits how can we attack the veracity of the report on the grounds of perjury or contempt? Justice Chandrachud replied Any documents that have been filed across the bar are a part of the record Proceedings for contempt and perjury shall still lie. During the arguments Dave questioned the veracity of the discreet inquiry report and said Soon after the article published government ordered the inquiry the commissioner of state intelligence sought permission from Chief Justice to record statement of four judges. How did he know who were the four judges? The report mentions only judge Barde The commissioner did not step out. Did not see any document or meet any doctor to collect evidence. This report does not inspire any confidence the state wanted to pre-empt an independent inquiry. And if this petition is dismissed the state would achieve that purpose. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App Tags: Judge Loya death supreme court KKalyanMar 9 2018 at 6:55 pmI wonder when SOME SC Judges will appear to be NOT biased anymore and do NOT question SELECTIVELY one party and look pre-biased?(0)(0) Reply suneil nayagamMar 9 2018 at 2:12 pm Normally people go to judges for justice. For the first time but I saw 4 Justices of the Supreme Court go to the people Rahul Gandhi at Lee Kwan Yu Singapore(14)(2) Reply PParthMar 9 2018 at 1:16 pmAdvocate Dushyant Dave at the top of his legal acumen.(16)(4) Reply SS. Javed.Mar 9 2018 at 1:14 pmIf justice is not done God will do the justice one day or other. All those who are to defame or cover up some body for one reason or other will be definitely punished in this world as well as hereafter. Nobody will then have power to interfere provide relief. The torment of God is very very severe beyond anybody s imagination.(3)(1) Reply AAbhishek YadavMar 9 2018 at 12:39 pmThe histopathology report has revealed narrowing of arteries and congestion in the brain but the heart tissue and muscles have shown to be normal. When there is a heart attack one part of the heart dies and that would have been appa in the microscopic exam...I have filed my own affidavit in this behalf as I had spoken to the doctors in person who were not willing to come on record he continued.(8)(2) Reply Load More Comments